Hello! Happy New Year! We're back open and ready to start a new chapter Best wishes for 2026 everyone 😊

Apply now for the Molly Spooner Studentship, a paid summer research opportunity for undergraduate students interested in hands-on marine biology. Deadline15th January 2026 👉 https://mymba.mba.ac.uk/member-homepage/discounts-and-bursaries/molly-spooner-studentship.html

Wishing everyone the best for the festive season 🎄

Who else finds winter the perfect time to settle down with a good book? 📖 www.mba.ac.uk/winter-must-...

'A Christmas Carol' by Charles Dickens was first published on this day (19 December) in 1843. Take a peek with us into this 1849 edition of 'A Christmas Carol', with beautiful illustrations by John Leech! 📽️ Reserve 828.8/DIC-13 IS #OnThisDay #OTD #AChristmasCarol #CharlesDickens #RareBooks

Before we head off for the holiday season we wanted to wish you all a Merry Fishmas 🐟 and a Happy New Year 🎆 📷PCU1.3: A festive postcard from Joseph Thomas Cunningham, a marine biologist known for his work on flatfish, to an unknown recipient

Day 1️⃣7️⃣ of our Festive Ocean Art Advent Calendar Festivity at full depth - Santa and science unite! Artwork by Julia Moruchkova #FestiveOceanArt

A festive-season feast of crabs 🦀 This spectacular spread comes from Albertus Seba’s Cabinet of Curiosities, Locupletissimi rerum naturalium thesauri (1734–1765). Consider this our contribution to #Crustmas ✨ #SciArt #NaturalHistory #ILoveBHL www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/41072182 🧪

We'll soon be closing our doors for the holiday season, and will be closed from the 19th December to the 2nd January, reopening on Monday 5th January. We may not post as often during that time, but we hope you'll stick around to see what 2026 brings 🎄

Shell-ebrating the holidays in style! Drawing by Krystyna Nedza Lots of fantastic artwork is being shared on our Festive Ocean Art Calendar this year — we’ll post some highlights below! #FestiveOceanArt

They've also got a really good library 😉

This project will address: ✅ Experimentally investigating the effects of microplastics. ✅ Assessing the effects of microplastics on microbial and microbiome communities ✅ Analysis of archived time-series samples ✅ Use of predictive tools to determine likely future risk

Such a lovely anemone! We have this illustration of the dahlia anemone (the chonky one in the image) from Gosse’s ‘ A History of the British Sea Anemones and Corals’, 1860 #TrickyTaxonThursday 📖 BL.36/G

😮and we thought it was choppy by #PlymouthHoe yesterday 🌊

A little festive #EYASparkle. These beautiful illustrations of the odd bobtail squid, Heteroteuthis dispar, can be found in the reports from the expeditions of Albert I Monaco. This volume, 66, was published in 1923 📖 E.I:Mn.1

Today’s forecast - it’s a bit fresh. But, seriously, stay safe if you’re out in #StormBram today 💨 ☔️ #PlymouthSound

Marine Biologists Must Reads… 1️⃣ Ocean: Earth’s Last Wilderness – David Attenborough 2️⃣ Shark: The Illustrated Biography – Daniel C. Abel & Sophie A. Maycock 3️⃣ The Seaweed Revolution – Vincent Doumeizel ✨ Members get discounts with affiliate publishers. #MustReads #MarineScience #OceanLovers

#otd in 1866 Maude Delap was born. Self taught, Maude was the first person to successfully rear jellyfish in home aquaria. Her research was highly regarded and scientists such as E.T. Browne, who was based @thembauk.bsky.social, often sought her advice, as can be seen from these letters 📷 PBR133

We've really enjoyed participating in the EYA Focus Week. We're finishing up with a montage of images from and about our archive and we hope you've enjoyed learning about us #EYAYourArchive

Last year we celebrated the 140th anniversary of the establishment of @thembauk.bsky.social. This document is from the first minute book of the MBA's council and details the founding of the Association. You can find out more about our work at buff.ly/mAZcYD4 #EYAAnniversaries

Today we've selected this photograph of women students participating in the first experimental zoology class held @thembauk.bsky.social in 1911 #EYAInclusion 📷 U.M.17

It's also #InternationalCheetahDay! Who knew. Well @exeterunispeccoll.bsky.social obvs

Most of our archive material is physical rather than #EYADigital but we searched our collection and found this image of a library team member c 1981, using an Apple IIe computer. Today almost all our research output could be classed as born digital archival material

The Cornish poets and writers Charles Causley and Jack Clemo were close friends - and they also loved their pets! Two of the most documented pets in our archives are Causley's cat, Rupert, and Clemo's Pomeranian, Spark! #EYAPets #Archives #ExploreYourArchive

For #EYAPets we have - cat paw prints on a dusty shelf! Not sure if this is what @exploreyourarchive.bsky.social had in mind but we think they're cute. And that is absolutely the reason we haven't dusted the shelf.... PS - no, we unfortunately don't have a library cat in residence 🐈

Our #Christmas decorations are up in the library🎄We think the artificial tree must be at least 40 years old, so surely it counts as archive material?........

We've selected this page of verse for #EYASilence. Written, most likely, by GM Spooner, there are a few mentions of the need for quiet in the library. We can tell you that times have changed since 1953! 📷 Archive references ML1 and PSP3

Webinar alert! Join us for a project introduction, some early findings & find out how you can get involved. When: Fri 5th Dec, 10am (GMT) Where: Online (Teams) Schedule: 20-30 minute presentation + Q&A Interested? DM for a link to join!

@exeterunispeccoll.bsky.social has something actually #EYAMedieval 📖

OK, so we've had to take a bit of creative license for #EYAMedieval as 1 - this book is in our rare book collection not main archive, and 2 - it's not technically medieval (it was printed in 1554) but it's the closest we could get! It is one of the first systematic studies of marine fish though.

Today it's #EYABeauty and our Library Assistant has picked one of her favourite images - an illustration of the polychaete worm Epigamia alexandri, by Elsie Sexton. Elsie was based @thembauk.bsky.social and was highly regarded for her research and scientific illustrations

It's the start of @exploreyourarchive.bsky.social Focus Week! We'll be doing our best to show you treasures from our archive that match the daily themes. Today it's #EYAConservation so we have a photograph of our archive material being repackaged as part of our recent relocation project

We’re back finding another tricky taxon in the library. We have this lovely illustration of the grey triggerfish (aka filefish) from Couch’s ‘A History of the Fishes of the British Islands’, 1865. The first recording of this species in the UK was August 1827

Back from a very successful trip to the IOM speaking with locals and visiting archives to piece together historical accounts of the herring fishery. We stumbled across these beautiful title page illustrations of marine biological station reports based on Puffin island in the late 1800s

More of the @dassh-at-the-mba.bsky.social birthday bash - featuring, our Head of Data and IT, the library and a floppy disk (aka the save icon) 💾

Happy Birthday to @dassh-at-the-mba.bsky.social 🥳 Congratulations to our colleagues (and library mates) for 20 years of data excellence!

Why sequence every genome? Annual Science Talk – Tuesday 2nd December 11:00-12:00 online or in person This year's eminent marine expert is Professor Peter W H Holland FMBA FRS. A Linacre Professor of Zoology at the University of Oxford. mymba.mba.ac.uk/member-homep...

Thanks to @exeterunispeccoll.bsky.social we have discovered today is #WorldWalrusDay! Our illustration from Millais' 'The Mammals of Great Britain and Ireland' 1904 might not be as expressive but we think it's just as majestic 📖BL.95/M

#OTD in 1859 'On the Origin of Species' was published. We have a few different editions in the library @thembauk.bsky.social but we are privileged to be custodians of an early edition gifted to (a mystery) someone by Charles #Darwin himself 📖BS.15/D

🌊🐟 Sea Spectacles returns! 🪼🫧 This month’s star: the St Piran’s Crab (Clibanarius erythropus) ✨ In 2016, BBC Springwatch held a contest to name this species — the winner was “St Piran’s Crab,” inspired by Cornwall’s sea-surviving patron saint. @thembauk.bsky.social #DASSH #SeaSpectacles

Today is #WorldFisheriesDay and Nicky, one of fabulous library volunteers, has written a piece on @thembauk.bsky.social's history of fisheries research. www.mba.ac.uk/the-marine-b...

Who else loves a crisp, wintery feeling morning? We certainly do, but we're also very glad the library has heating! #PlymouthSound #Devon

Did you know that the library wasn't always the library? To accommodate an increasing number of books and journals, the fisheries laboratory was repurposed to become what is now part of our ground floor #library #history #archive

Did you know that the original logo of @thembauk.bsky.social was inspired by the inlay on the library's main staircase. The logo may have undergone an update in recent years, but it still retains the iconic seahorse as its focal point

Thank you to @swrls.bsky.social for an insightful and educational visit to Exeter for the SWRLS event with AGM We got so caught up in the cathedral archive and library tour we forgot to take pictures of the books! www.swrls.org.uk/post/swrls-a...

🌊🤖 Using Deep Learning to Unlock Decades of Marine Biodiversity Data! 🐠📊 DTO-BioFlow is using AI to analyse decades of marine biodiversity records - revealing insights that support ocean monitoring, conservation, and restoration. 💙 🔗 Read more: buff.ly/U5P8isO @thembauk.bsky.social #DTOBioFlow

The Marine Biologist magazine - so good we have two copies in the library 🦦

New book alert 🚨 We've just received a kind donation of this new limited run publication from Professor Geoff Moore, Emeritus Professor of Marine Biology at the University of London, and long term Member of @thembauk.bsky.social We have to say, our curiosity is piqued

Not us, warm in the library while @thembauk.bsky.social's Head of Engagement, Maya, was out walking along Plymouth Hoe for Pudsey's challenge. Great job everyone 🙂 #ChildrenInNeed #Pudsey

#OTD in 1787 Sir John Richardson was born. A surgeon, explorer and naturalist, Richardson was involved in preparing the 3rd edition of William Yarrell's 'A History of British Fishes'. We have a large volume of illustrations and plates from this work in the archive @thembauk.bsky.social 📖 ref PRN1