Welsh Government Cabinet Secretary for Environment and Rural Affairs Visit

Prof Paul Shaw, Lesley Griffiths AM, Dr Niall Mc Keown IBERS & Leanne Llewellyn from the Welsh Government.

Lesley Griffiths AM, the Welsh Government Cabinet Secretary for Environment and Rural Affairs today met Prof Paul Shaw to discuss the research conducted in IBERS on the application of state of the art genetic methods to sustainable management of fisheries.

Professor Paul Shaw is leading the Aberystwyth University component of the €6.25 million BLUEFISH project, funded under the Ireland-Wales EU Interreg programme to investigate potential effects of climate change on fisheries and aquaculture activities across the Irish Sea.

Prof Shaw’s research group study the distribution and evolution of genetic diversity in natural populations, with a particular focus on sustainable management of aquatic species that are fished.

He is funded by EU, Welsh Government, Defra, NERC, Falkland Islands Government, and World Bank development projects around southern Africa to contribute to management of commercial and artisanal fisheries around the UK and across the world.

Prof Shaw explained to the Cabinet Secretary how his group’s genetics research had established that the International Tuna Commission boundaries for the management of global yellowfin tuna stocks between the Atlantic and Indian Oceans will need to be redrawn.

Closer to home, his group’s research is contributing to our understanding of stocks of edible crab and anchovy around the UK and of seabass and whelk in Welsh waters.  

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