Science and Technology Minister, Naledi Pandor, made an official visit to the South African Institute for
Aquatic Biodiversity (SAIAB) on Monday. During the visit she formally opened the library and was conducted on a tour of the JLB Smith Collection Management Centre.
Science and Technology Minister, Naledi Pandor, made an official visit to the South African Institute for
Aquatic Biodiversity (SAIAB) on Monday. During the visit she formally opened the library and was conducted on a tour of the JLB Smith Collection Management Centre.
SAIAB’s Managing Director, Prof Paul Skelton, welcomed Pandor with an overview of SAIAB, its multifacetted research, science advancement activities and some of the challenges the institute faces.
“It is a pleasure to be part of such a sector,” Pandor said in response. “Science and technology hold a lot of promise for the development of South Africa and we have the resources and intellectual structure to go forward.”
SAIAB’s new library, which has been under construction for the past year, is named after Margaret Smith. SAIAB’s senior librarian, Margie Shaw, explained that the library houses a specialised collection of journals and books covering topics such as aquaculture, fisheries science and aquatic biodiversity.
Locally, SAIAB’s resources are used by students from Rhodes University’s Department of Ichthyology and Fisheries Science and the new library will provide bigger and better study areas for these and other students from other South African universities.
Pandor was particularly impressed with the African Coelacanth Ecosystem Programme’s (ACEP)’s Remote Operated Vehicle (ROV) which Dr Albert Van Jaarsveld, the National Research Foundation’s President and Chief Executive Officer, referred to as “the Eastern Cape’s coolest toy”.
Van Jaarsveld accompanied the Minister on the tour of the facility. ACEP is SAIAB’s flagship programme and uses the coelacanth as an icon of its research focus on offshore, marine ecosystems.
ACEP’s research efforts seek to answer questions around marine biology, African coelacanths, their ecosystems and deep water environments and conservation planning.
The ROV is designed to undertake observation in South African coastal waters previously too deep to explore by scuba diving.
“I never knew aquatic biodiversity could interest me this much,” said Pandor. “It is exciting to learn to say ‘coelacanth’ and ‘ichthyology’” The NRF invests significantly in SAIAB as one of its research institutes and Van Jaarsveld was impressed that the institute is “moving from strength to strength each year with the science potential exploding in many directions.”
Sharing Van Jaarsveld’s sentiments, Pandor is confident that SAIAB is a valuable investment for the Department of Science and Technology and that “the new library is a fitting recognition of the institute’s research excellence.”
