Biogenic reefs are hard material created by living things that build up to form structures. While typically we think of things like the Great Barrier reef, tropical waters and corals Ireland is home to its own miniature version in the form of Serpula vermicularis reefs. Serpula are small worms that grow calcareous tubes on hard substrares, they are the white tubes you find growing on rocks, harbour walls or boat hulls. However at a number of sites the larvae settle on existing tubes so that the tubes eventually grow to form large reefs which can be up to 2m in height.
3 sites in Galway host these unique reefs and since 2021 Seasearch Ireland has undertaken a project deploying GoPros in at one site to record the creatures that visit, feed on and live in the Serpula reefs. While this talk will cover some of the more technical and scientific details related to Serpula vermicularis it is intended to be aimed at a general audience and will generally cover the Serpula project and the videos that have been collected during it.
This free online talk is open to all and you can register here.
