Winner Announced! Vents and Reefs Competition

The winner of the Vents & Reefs competition is Rebecca Farrelly from Glanmire Community College in Co. Cork. Rebecca’s entry “Salfa” (pictured on right) wowed the judges.  Rebecca displayed great thought and consideration for the deep-sea hydrothermal vent habitat in which her creature would live, and also showed tremendous creativity.  Congratulations to Rebecca!

There were so many fantastic entries it was hard indeed to pick a winner, so in the end the judges also identified second and third place winners.  Congratulations to Julie Hayes from Ursuline Secondary School in Cork for her second place entry “An Tromluí Rua” and to third place winner Alia Abouelleil from Notre Dame Secondary School in Dublin.

Second place: Julie Hayes

Third place: Alia Abouelleil

These three, and the other entries that made it into the top 10, will all be on display at next Friday’s sea2sky event (www.sea2sky.ie) in Galway.  The official prize giving ceremony will take place at 3 pm, where Rebecca’s deep-sea namesake will be unveiled!  This was a competition with a truly unique prize – and Rebecca will have a newly discovered deep-sea hydrothermal vent creature named after her.

Thanks to all who entered the Vents & Reefs competition.

This competition was part of the expedition headed out to the mid-Atlantic ridge this summer, to record and document life 3000 m below the surface at a recently discovered hydrothermal vent ecosystem.  More information can be found on the Ryan Institute’s Outreach pages.