Oceanography Malta Group at UM

02/11/2026

In Italy, PIZZA normally comes to the rescue, in major crises...

And it's no different now....the Atlantic blue swimmer crab (Callinectes sapidus), a highly invasive species native of north American waters and recorded in Maltese waters as well (besides wreaking havoc in northern Italy), has made it to a pizza within Milan restaurants.....

If an invasive alien species is edible and can be safely consumed, culinary solutions are great, as in this case!

Spot the Alien citizen science campaign...campaigns.ocean.mt

29/10/2026

Yet another marine service from our Oceanography Malta Research Group (Geosciences Department, UM)....

Tracking large vessels within Maltese waters through our own AIS data receiver…..freely-available to the public through our ocean.mt website on:

https://www.aishub.net/stations/4282

Kudos Prof. Adam Gauci for making this possible!

Ocean.mt

22/10/2026

Our underwater gardeners at work….

Transplanting naturally-dislodged Posidonia oceanica seagrass shoots off Qawra, north-east Malta, in a bid to restore such Neptune seagrass meadows, a keystone marine habitat in the Mediterranean for a number of reasons….over 500m2 of dead matte have now been transplanted with seagrass shoots....

This work is being done as part of the ongoing collaboration, titled Blue South Med, between the WWF Mediterranean and the University of Malta, represented by the Oceanography Malta Research Group (OMRG)…..the MEDSEA Foundation and the Fondation de la Mer trained our staff on such restoration and funded previous interventions in autumn and autummn 2025 and hence we are greatly grateful to them as well....

Video footage courtesy of colleague Alessio Marrone…video compression courtesy of colleague David Montano…

alessiomarrone

14/10/2026

🌱 530 m² of seabed. Another little step closer to bringing Malta's underwater meadows back to life! 🌊

Another successful Posidonia oceanica transplantation in Qawra!

Over three days, our Oceanography Malta Research Group (OMRG) team within the Department of Geosciences at the University of Malta transplanted more than 1,800 seagrass cuttings across approximately 200 m² of seabed, bringing our cumulative restoration efforts to 530 m² — the largest seagrass transplantation initiative ever undertaken in Malta!

A fantastic team effort, made possible through our collaboration with WWF Mediterranean under the Blue South Med project, building on previous work with the MEDSEA Foundation, and with the support of our partners and Watercolours Diving Centre.

Photos and text courtesy of colleague Alessio Marrone!

Now comes the real challenge: watching our little underwater forest grow! 💚


https://www.instagram.com/p/DeejZN3iKuQ/?xtok=MWZsZmphMWZ1aDdoeg==

05/10/2026

🌊 The Ocean State Report 10 is here!

A valuable resource for students, lecturers, researchers and anyone interested in understanding our changing ocean.

The latest Copernicus Marine Ocean State Report brings together scientific knowledge and ocean observations to provide a comprehensive assessment of the global ocean and European regional seas. It explores the state and evolution of the ocean using satellite observations, in-situ measurements, models and key ocean indicators.

Ocean State Report 10th issue Breadcrumb You are here: Home Access data Ocean State Reports Ocean State Report 10th issue Summary The 10th edition of the EU Copernicus Ocean State Report (OSR) The Copernicus Ocean State Report (OSR) celebrates its 10th edition. Over the past ten years, the OSR has ...

02/10/2026

What an intense 3 days it was!

Hosting, jointly with the University of Kiel, through Prof. Dr. Martin Gerken from the Faculty of Engineering, a riveting 3-day inter-disciplinary scientific workshop on water quality testing probes which can be fitted on marine buoys……a total of 4 different University of Malta Departments (Geosciences, Biology, Chemistry and Microelectronics) as well as researchers from the University of Kiel, Brest, Naples, Split, Bremen and Minnesota (US) came together to discuss such an innovative approach…..

Thanks to the SEA-EU Alliance for making this cross-fertilisation of scientific ideas possible, thanks to all the participating researchers and participants (especially Prof. Gerken whose brainchild this seminar was), staff at the SEA-EU’s UM office (Adam, Maria, Fernanda and Tazin) as well as our Rector Prof. Frank Bezzina, our Dean Prof. Emanuel Sinagra, Head of Geosciences Department Prof. Sebastiano D’Amico, Prof. Edward Gatt and staff at the Oceanography Malta Research Group (OMRG – Alessio, Laura, Audrey, Sam and David) for their support throughout and thanks to the staff at the Aquatic Resources Authority for hosting our participants on the second day!

Photos courtesy of David Montano, James Moffett (UM’s Communications Office) and the undersigned……proceedings emerging from this cross-cutting workshop will be published soon, along, hopefully, with a more permanent and substantial publication……

29/09/2026

Welcoming this year's MSc in Applied Oceanography students for the 5th year running...

They hail from Denmark, Spain, the UK, France and Malta...thks to the Faculty of Science and the Department of Geosciences for supporting us and to James Moffett from the Communications Office at the University of Malta for the great photo...

The Course is offered by the Oceanography Malta Research Group (ocean.mt)...thks to colleagues Adam, Anthony, Audrey, Alessio, Laura, Chaima and Sam for making the course a success!

Applications for next year's course will open on the 1st November 2026....

23/09/2026

The Cirkewwa marine reserve CCTV camera is back on stream!

Thanks to the dedication of colleague Prof. Adam Gauci as well as to the CORALLO +SI project, funded as an Interreg Italia-Malta project……yet another contribution by the OMRG (Oceanography Malta Research Group) within the Department of Geosciences of the University of Malta to the sustainable management of marine resources around these islands……ocean.mt

Live streaming from the Cirkewwa camera is available here…..
https://cirkewwamarinepark.mt/cameras/cirkewwa-sea-conditions-camera/

Keeping an eye on the underwater attractions via CCTV at the Cirkewwa Marine Park operated by Nature Trust Malta.

16/09/2026

We bagged it!

The SEA-EU Alliance, of which the University of Malta is a partner, has managed to bag the ‘Winner of the Winners’ ultimate Blue Award at the first-ever joint Atlantic-WestMED Stakeholder Conference in Las Palmas, Gran Canaria, during the final selection yesterday. SEA-EU had initially won its category – Blue Skills and Ocean Literacy – amongst a total of 70 contestants and then won the overall award as well…..
Thanks to the WestMED National Hub for Malta Dr. Stephanie Vella for encouraging to nominate SEA-EU for such Awards and thanks to all the Alliance for the sterling work they do!

Further details about the sea-eu alliance can be gleaned through this link: sea-eu.org

12/09/2026

Waning interest in the sciences in our youth....bad news indeed....

Every three years the OECD, a club of mostly rich countries, releases the results of international school tests sat by 15-year-olds all across the world. Anyone who cares about the young of today should be alarmed at this year’s scores bit.ly/4ykKClh