Marine Mammal Research & Conservation Projects in Greece

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This internship consists of both field work and office work, which will provide interns with valuable skill sets in data collection and equipment use, as well as data analysis and report writing - skills necessary for a professional career in marine mammal research, marine conservation and environmental management. Boat-based surveys can be carried out on either single-day research trips or multi-day expeditions. These are conducted throughout the year depending on the weather conditions. Surveys take place on our research vessels: Aegean Explorer (22m motorboat), Naftilos (15m sailing boat), Pinelopi (16m sailing boat), and Asterias (7m speedboat).

On these vessels, interns are involved in a variety of ongoing research projects, including:

• Cetacean presence, abundance, distribution and behavioural studies (BORIS software) through boat-based surveys.
• Species distribution, residency patterns and social structure using mark recapture photo-ID techniques.
• Passive Acoustics Monitoring of cetacean species and anthropogenic noise, using a broadband towed Hydrophone array (320m) and stationary hydrophone. PAMGuard and Raven Pro software are used for data analysis.
• Presence, abundance, distribution and behavioural analysis of Mediterranean monk seals and sea turtles (Loggerhead and Green sea turtle).
• Monitoring and assessing coastal and floating marine litter.
• Monitoring and assessing interactions with fishing boats and other commercial or recreational boats
• Monitoring and assessing seabird populations at sea.

Additional areas that interns can assist with are:

• Response and sampling of stranded marine mammals and sea turtles.
• Analysing microplastic content in marine animal’s digestive systems.

These projects provide field-work and hands-on research opportunities for under-graduate and post-graduate students, as well as for researchers looking to gain field-research experience or to collect data for scientific publications.
Participants have the opportunity to collect data for producing a thesis and scientific publications (you can view Archipelagos researchers' scientific publications that interns contributed to, here). This internship provides skills and expertise, valuable for a professional career in marine mammal research, marine conservation and environmental management.

This internship program is available for students, graduates and researchers marine, ecological and environmental sciences and/or veterinary medicine.

Applicants must be able to work both independently and as part of a dynamic, multicultural, multidisciplinary team. During multi-day expeditions, the research team lives on the boat, so applicants must be able to live in tight quarters for several days at a time.

Internship duration normally ranges between 3 - 12 months, although shorter or longer internship periods may be arranged to cover the needs of groups or individuals.

Archipelagos’ research bases and stations are in the Eastern Aegean Sea, on the islands of Samos and Lipsi as well as onboard the research vessels. Interns often move between research bases and boats depending on where the surveys will take place.

As a non-profit research institute, the internships we offer are unpaid. This educational/research experience requires a monthly fee of 650 euro to cover living expenses, the cost of training, use of research equipment and travelling with the research vessels, use of the office facilities, as well as insurance. For internships of less than 3 months in duration the participation fees are raised to 780 euro per month.

Students and recent graduates and researchers are advised to search for possible funding through their universities, by getting in touch with the International Office/ Placement/ Erasmus+ Offices at their Universities or other relevant grant providing organizations in their region.

To apply, please send your motivation letter, your CV, a copy of your resume, cover letter and one reference letter (if available) to admissions@archipelago.gr