As part of the public outreach component of this scientific initiative—which studies Portuguese man-of-war to identify their navigation patterns in order to predict their arrival on the coast in advance—a series of talks has recently been delivered to pupils at CEIP Maestro Félix Santana
The ECOAQUA University Institute, part of the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (ULPGC)University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (ULPGC), through the Marine Organism Ecophysiology Group (EOMAR), led by May Gómez Cabrera, has recently organised an outreach event to ensure that the PHYSALIA project: Physical Basis of Biological Sailing, to move from laboratories and field research into the classroom.
As part of the outreach component of this important scientific initiative, EOMAR researchers Sheila Santana Rodríguez and May Gómez, along with Josef Greenhalgh, gave a series of talks to pupils in Years 3 to 6 at CEIP Maestro Félix Santana, one of Gran Canaria’s Blue Schools.
Through this activity, the young pupils had the opportunity to observe live Portuguese man-of-war (Physalia physalis) specimens first-hand and understand the life cycle and navigation patterns of this unique marine species.
The Blue School initiative involves carrying out an educational project that brings the ocean and the waters closer to the classroom, promoting ocean literacy and the active participation of pupils.
Researcher May Gómez, coordinator of the PHYSALIA project and director of EOMAR, pictured during a talk at the school alongside other researchers from the scientific initiative.
In addition, the project involves pupils from CEIP Maestro Félix Santana sponsoring three replica Portuguese caravels, so that they can track their movements and navigation.
PHYSALIA aims to analyse the navigation patterns of Portuguese man-of-war, with the aim of understanding their evolution and, thereby, improving predictions of their arrival on the coast.
In this way, the PHYSALIA project, in addition to identifying the navigation patterns of this species, aims to shed light on the biology, spatial distribution and mechanisms that determine the seasonality of this organism, whose delicate nature prevents the attachment of sensors for study.
Researcher May Gómez, coordinator of the PHYSALIA project and director of EOMAR, during another part of the talk at the school alongside other researchers from the scientific initiative.
The aim is thus to apply scientific knowledge to the study of a species about which very little is yet known, despite its frequent presence along the Canary Islands’ coastline, causing, in some cases, the well-known inconvenience to bathers who visit the beaches every year.
Illustration created by the school in appreciation of the talk given by May Gómez and other researchers involved in the project.
The resulting navigation models will subsequently be combined with other variables such as wind and sea currents, as well as various biological and allometric scaling parameters, to construct agent-based models (ABMs) that simulate the population dynamics of the caravels in a virtual ocean.
New observation campaign
The EOMAR group at ECOAQUA and the University Institute of Intelligent Systems and Numerical Applications (SIANI), also part of the ULPGC, under the coordination of EOMAR researcher May Gómez, carried out a new observation and monitoring campaign for the Portuguese man-of-war (Physalia physalis) in the waters off Gran Canaria during the first quarter of this year. The aim was to improve predictions of its arrival on the coast, taking advantage of the arrival of the first specimens on the Canary Islands’ coastline.
A specimen of the Portuguese man-of-war.
This new campaign, which is being carried out as part of the PHYSALIA Project, is a continuation of the research work that began in late February last year, in which the Asturias Marine Observatory also participated, through the Department of Organism and Systems Biology at the University of Oviedo (UNIOVI), the Gijón Oceanographic Centre and the Andalusian Institute of Marine Sciences, via the Higher Centre for Scientific Research (ICMAN).
This new scientific monitoring programme also involves international institutions such as the Pontifical Catholic University of Valparaíso (Chile) and the BiosStation at Arizona State University (USA).
Another specimen of Portuguese man-of-war off the coast.
On this occasion, several specimens of the drifters that arrived between late January and early February were collected; these organisms were successfully kept in culture for study and observation for just over a month, being fed for the first time in a controlled environment over a long period to understand their physiology and biological mechanisms. Last year, during the first campaign of the PHYSALIA Project, they were successfully kept alive in culture for a total of 45 days, an unprecedented achievement in research into this unique and beautiful marine species.
Researchers from the PHYSALIA Project with some specimens in culture for study at the ECOAQUA facilities.
The project is funded by the State Research Agency of the Spanish Government’s Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities and is scheduled to run until 31 August 2027. It also benefits from the collaboration of the REDPROMAR sightings network. In addition to May Gómez, the researchers José Luis Acuña and Fernando González Taboada from the University of Oviedo and the Gijón Oceanographic Centre, and Laura Prieto from the Andalusian Institute of Marine Sciences, are participating as principal investigators (PIs) on the various sub-projects.