Bringing ocean science to Southampton Boat Show

The University of Southampton was once again at the Southampton Boat Show in 2018, the largest commercial marine event of its kind in 2018 and a fantastic event for the local region.

This year the Boat Show highlighted plastic pollution in our oceans. Our mission as a University is to ‘Change the world for the better’. As world-leading experts in marine, Earth and environmental science one of the many ways we are implementing this mission is by exploring the secrets of our blue planet and researching the impact of plastics in our oceans.

At the Boat Show you could get hands on with marine science and find out how our research into plastics is changing the world.

Learn more about what we do

What could you do at our Boat Show stands?

Visit the Science of the Sea Experience

Our Science of the Sea Experience (stand E030) included a number of exhibits including a shallow rock pool and films about our relationships with plastics and how we can work together to protect the future health of our oceans.

In this marine discovery zone you could learn more about our blue planet, what lives within it and how you can help to keep our oceans healthy by reducing plastic waste. Our experts were standing by to answer your questions.

Marine Science chatter daily at 3pm:

Every day, scientists from the University of Southampton talked ‘science’ outside the Ocean Experience Exhibition. They talked about everything from micro plastics in everyday household items, to our marine research expeditions to the Arctic. These were great, accessible science talks. This was the talk schedule:

• Friday 14: Dr Simon Boxall: Waves across the ocean
• Sunday 16: Professor Steve Roberts: Metal riches from the ocean floor.
• Monday 17: Stephen Kelly: Using Computer Models to Investigate Oil Spills in the Ocean
• Tuesday 18: Rebecca Huggett: Are we overfeeding our oceans? 
• Wednesday 19: Moira Maclean: Limpets rock
• Thursday 20: Dr Ivan Haigh: Sea Level Rise and Coastal Flooding 
• Friday 21: Nic Pratt: My (almost) Plastic Free July
• Saturday 22: Ben Roche: Hunting Bubbles
• Sunday 23rd: Ben Robinson: My Antarctic adventure

This is just some of the marine life you could find in our shallow rock pool at the Boat Show.

All these creatures can be found just offshore in UK coastal waters and they could all be threatened because of marine plastic pollution.

Climb aboard our research vessel

Our research vessel, Callista, was a feature berth in the main Boat Show marina (Berth M455). You could come on board and have a tour. There was a remote autonomous vehicle (ROV) in the water filming under the boat and you could to see footage from around the world that has been captured using our ROV.

View our art installation

At the Boat Show we displayed a 'Wave' sculpture, made from plastic that had been picked up in Empress Docks, Southampton, by our students during the Spring of 2018.

The sculpture was made by our alumna Jilly Evans and highlights the fact that the problem of plastics in our oceans is both a global and a local issue.

Learn more about the artist and this sculpture.