Farewell, Philipp!

Philipp joined Dr. Brawley’s Algal Aquaculture Class and learned how to prepare Alaria seed spools. In this photo he’s spraying gametophytes onto the prepared spools.

It’s always a pleasure to host students here at CCAR. We almost always end up learning as much from them as they do from us. As it turns out, this was also the case with our most recent intern, Philipp Sandmann.

Philipp came to intern at CCAR all the way from Germany where he is a graduate student studying aquaculture at the University of Rostock. He has many interests in aquaculture, including shrimp farming, biofloc systems, IMTA systems, and hatchery production.

Philipp checks the development of sea urchin larvae

Luckily for Philipp, his internship coincided with our green sea urchin season, so he was kept very busy in the hatchery assisting CCAR research associate, Luz Kogson, with all aspects of sea urchin production. The two worked diligently to spawn and rear the larval urchins until they were ready to settle into their first feeding tanks. This included lots of patience (and microalgae production).

Philipp and Melissa strip ripe eggs from an Atlantic halibut

In addition to his work with the sea urchins, he was very helpful in assisting with our Atlantic halibut spawning efforts, which included handling the large fish during gamete collection.

We enjoyed getting to know Philipp and discussing new aquaculture technologies with him. His innovative approach helped us to develop new techniques that will be put to use in our sea urchin hatchery for years to come. We wish Philipp all the best as he continues down his aquaculture path!

If you have any questions about his internship or German aquaculture, feel free to contact him via LinkedIn.