COMBER ELECTED FISH OF THE WEEK!

Comber (Serranus cabrilla) is a species of fish in the family Serranidae.

It lives in the Mediterranean Sea, the Black Sea and the Atlantic Coast from the British Isles to the Cape of Good Hope, including the Azores, Madeira and the Canary Islands. The habitat are rocky or sandy sounding-deeps at depths of 0–200 metres (0–660 ft). Size can vary from 5–25 centimetres (2.0–9.8 in) in normal individual to up to 40 cm (16 in). The comber feeds on other fish, cephalopodos and crustaceans.

Special discounts for COMBER members!

Everyday, from monday to friday, at the CretAquarium of Gournes, from 11.00 a.m., you can find 3 promoters of the Comber Project for a completely FREE TOUR to recognize the fishes of the BioWatch ID Card, in order to improve your awareness of mediterranean biodiversity.

In the end of the tour, they will give you the COMBER Card which permits you to obtain a SPECIAL DISCOUNT of 20% in the diving and sailing clubs that join our project.

COMBER team 2012

COMBER is a project realised by the scientists of the Hellenic Centre for Marine Research (HCMR) of Gournes (Crete) to explain how animal biodiversity can be an important resource in an ecological perspective.

This summer, 3 foreign students have the chance to work with them and offer free tours in the CretAquarium, from Monday to Friday at 11 a.m.

Stavroula Artemiou from Cyprus
Stavroula studies Biological Sciences in the University of her country. She obtained an Erasmus Placement grant at the HCMR in order to work on the analysis of macro-benthos stomachs and the sorting of marine fauna organisms. She took place in Citizen's Network for the Observation of Marine BiodivERsity (COMBER) as a testimonial of the goals of the project.

Athena Vlasiou from Cyprus
Athena studies Biological Sciences in the University of her country. She obtained an Erasmus Placement grant at the HCMR in order to work on the analysis of macro-benthos stomachs and the sorting of marine fauna organisms. She join the COMBER project as well as a promoter of the Mediterranean biodiversity.

Giacomo Pinsoglio from Italy
Giacomo studies Environmental Biology at the University of Turin. He obtained an Erasmus Placement grant at the HCMR in order to work on the sorting and identification of micro-benthos (Main sub-phylum: Crustacea). He is also involved in the communication and promotion of the COMBER project.

 

Diving clubs are waiting for you!

Diving and snorkeling clubs in Greece help the Comber Project to reach its goal: assisting the understanding and sustainable management of our coastal biodiversity through its continuous observation and monitoring. Join one of those clubs and plan your participation!
 

Creta's Happy Divers is a diving club in Agios Nikolaos / Elounda, Crete.

Web-site: http://www.cretashappydivers.gr/ | Phone number: +30 2841082546 |  E-mail: cretas@happydivers.gr

Diver's Club Crete is a diving club with three dive bases near Heraklion (Crete): Agia Pelagia, Malia and Amoudara.

Web-site: http://www.diversclub-crete.gr/ | Phone number: +30 2810811755 | Mobile: +30 6944565462

The European Diving Institute is a scuba diving club in Lygaria (just west of Heraklion).

Web-site: http://www.eurodiving.net/ | Phone number: +30 2810811252 | Mobile: +30 6936922801

Pelagos Dive Center is a diving club with three dive bases located in Agios Nikolaos.

Web-site: http://www.divecrete.com/English/Diving.html | Phone number: +30 2841024376 | E-mail: apelagos@cyta.gr

Lesvos Scuba Oceanic Centre is a dive center with two dive bases in Lesvos Island in the northeast Aegean Sea.

Web-site: http://www.lesvoscuba.gr/index.php?lang=en | Mobile phone number: +30 6945998764 | E-mail: info@lesvoscuba.gr

 

Altersail  is a yachting organization in Heraklion offering sailing tours of one or more days.

Web-site: http://www.altersail.gr/ | Phone-number: +30 6946791159 | E-mail: info@altersail.gr

 

FIND US ON FACEBOOK!

Our FaceBook Page is a good chance to share your opinions, experiences and photos about your dives in order to increase the awareness of the importance of biodiversity and how everyone can recognize it as a priority for the humanity. Visit us at https://www.facebook.com/comber.project and become a member of our group!

FREE TOURS AT CRETAQUARIUM

From now on until September 2012, in the CretAquarium of Gournes at 11.00 a.m., the Comber Staff will guide you in a FREE TOUR to discover the Mediterranean species of the BioWatch ID Card. It takes to buy the entrance ticket at the reception and then ask for a Comber Staff member or look for us at the Comber stand nearby. You can also reserve your free tour just calling our phone number (+30 2810 337742) or sending an e-mail (contact@comber.hcmr.gr).

Tours are available in 6 languages: English, French, Greek, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish. We look forward to meeting you!

Comber seminars: 
Where: Cretaquarium, Gournes (ca. 18km east of Heraklion)
When: 11:00 a.m.
Costs: Fish tours are free, entrance tickets for the aquarium have to be purchased
Info: +30 2810 337742; contact@comber.hcmr.gr; www.cretaquarium.gr

 

 

Accumulating data...

We're rapidly accumulating data on fish distribution! This is great, unfortunately, some features on the site (e.g. the MyDives section) have  become very slow to load. This is due to an underlying software issue which we will solve after the first phase of the project. Eventually we'll switch to a much faster solution, but we do not want to take the site down right now for maintenaince. So, until then you'll just have to be a bit patient when loading your dive data. Apologies!

First COMBER seminar took place!

The first COMBER seminar successfully took place! Participants followed a small seminar about fish identification and were afterwards accompanied on their dive by scientists from HCMR to record the various species they observed. Everyone had great fun!

   

Participants follow a small seminar on fish identification given by scientists of HMCR...