Nephrops: Scientists play hide-and-seek with peek-a-boo prawns

As "art forms" go, spying prawns underwater may not be on your bingo card. But scientists like Dr Pia Schuchert at the Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute (AFBI) train for years to spot the seabed dwellers - Nephrops norvegicus, as they are known to their expert friends. "We normally think they might be running around - and they are sometimes, they're very cute," she said. "But they live in burrows under the sea." That makes them very difficult to count, and keeping track of numbers is critical for protecting this economically-important species. An international group of seasoned experts and newly-qualified researchers have spent a week in Northern Ireland training for this year's survey in the summer. While scientists call them Nephrops, most people will know them as Dublin Bay prawns, langoustines, Portavogie prawns or scampi. Every year, Underwater Television (UWTV) surveys are carried out to monitor the seabed in several different locations, using cameras on sleds. The footage is then studied and analysed by teams across the UK and Ireland to assess how the species is faring and help set fishing quotas. Prawns have a whole secret life on the seabed, according to Schuchert. "The