Philip Keena

My duties primarily revolve around fish husbandry, working within the salmon hatchery, carrying out daily routines, and maintaining records.

• Installing new systems for growing fish within the hatchery, primarily working on setting up and improving onsite RAS. Using my plumbing and DIY skills to find solutions to problems within the site.
• Carry out inspections of freshwater pearl mussels, noting any changes to the systems, and sampling fish within the system for signs of glochidia encysting.
• Fish Health – taking fish for sampling, assessing health status of fish, and determining what can be done to improve fish health.
• Cleaning and disinfecting sites and equipment to keep up with the Marine Institute's Biosecurity protocols.
• Keeping records for stocks, movements, treatments, inspections, and equipment up to date monthly on site, which have to be maintained for auditing purposes.
• Carry out micro-tagging of fish on site, using and maintaining the coded wire tagging equipment during operation.
• Support colleagues with trap duties and assist when needed.
• Sort and organize fish sales of any trapped salmon

I was a research assistant at ATU Galway with the Marine and Freshwater Research Centre, working on using underwater drones or ROV, and also on completing the Identifying stage of macro-invertebrates from a national water quality project.

• I led the development of using underwater drones, or ROV, for macrophyte surveys within freshwater systems. This required learning how to use the systems and equipment to carry out fieldwork, honing those skills into an efficient method that could be adopted by others.
• I wrote the methods of carrying out a macrophyte survey with a ROV and created a manual for using the drone, communicating clear instructions for best practices.
• I was brought in to complete a national project where kick samples from rivers had to be sorted, and the macro-invertebrates identified to group levels. This required many hours working within a lab environment, also needing a high level of organizational skills to keep samples separate and well recorded.
• During my time, I was also recruited to collect water samples from a number of locations and to help collect eDNA samples from remote freshwater systems in the west of Ireland.

I worked with IDAS Ltd. Rainbow Trout farm. I was the hatchery manager, and my duties included fish husbandry of trout from egg stage to fry stage.

• I organized the logistics for buying new eggs for the estimated year of production. This required working with owners and grow-out managers to determine how much fish they wanted this coming season. I would liaise with the egg suppliers in Europe and America, and try to get the best price and best quality eggs for the farm.
• I set up the hatching facilities and would carry out the biosecurity measures required to bring eggs onto the site. I would carry out daily husbandry tasks on eggs and fish, once they hatch.
• I had to set up new systems to add water to tanks, or to add oxygen to tanks, and had to become proficient at planning and getting specs for works while working within a budget.
• I would carry out all fish health work, doing weekly checks and organizing treatments if necessary. I was in charge of keeping stocks of incoming and outgoing chemicals for the farms.
• I carried out grading and movements within the hatchery, keeping records for traceability of batches and fish strains.
• During yearly audits, I would present all necessary records and paper trails of egg purchases, fish movements, chemical records, vet prescriptions, daily duties, and receipts of equipment purchased.

Worked with the Marine Institute in Newport as a temporary lab attendant.

• I was involved with the fieldwork of surveying eel and trout within the Burrishoole Catchment. This involved setting and retrieving nets, helping the electrofishing teams, assisting in tagging eels and trout with PIT tags, recording data from the field work, and transferring from field sheets to Excel documents.
• I carried out work within the salmon hatchery, doing daily fish husbandry duties and assisting with transferring fish. I also assisted the trap teams in removing fish from traps and recording them for fish sales.
• Carried out water quality tests within the lab, assessing water parameters from water collected in the field.
  

Worked as a general laborer in the Mullingar and Dublin area, working on extensions, renovations, and landscaping.

• I was involved in preparing sites for electricians, prepping walls, and setting up guide holes for incoming cables.
• I was involved in setting up damp core and cladding for plasterers.
• Preparing blocks and cement for block layers.
• Clean up sites and store away equipment.
• Carrying out landscaping duties, such as creating flower beds and setting up paving stones.

Worked with the Marine Institute in Mayo for 12 weeks as part of the Undergraduate Bursary Programme.

• I was involved in the eel surveys, carrying out field duties such as setting and retrieving nets.
• Measuring and dissecting eels, then plotting data onto Excel sheets for later analysis.

I carried out work experience with Inland Fisheries Ireland's research department, based in Citywest, Dublin.

• I helped record and organize data collected from salmon from around the country. Using Microsoft Excel and Access to enter and store the data in a clear, concise manner.
• I aged and estimated growth rates of salmon using scale analyses. And recorded all scales using Image Pro to add to the archive system.

I was accepted as a Bursar within the Marine Institute's bursary program. I worked in the salmon smolt rearing unit and fishery.

• I carried out the necessary fish husbandry within the smolt unit.
• I helped with the fish sales, acting as scribe for measurements.
• Wrote fishing permits for visiting anglers, preparing the boats for anglers.
• Processed the caught salmon, taking length, weight, and scale samples from them.
• Logging data onto Excel sheets.