George Philip Farran was born on November 21, 1876. He attended Trinity College in Dublin in 1876 for law. Later he graduated in Natural Science winning the Gold Medal of the subject for his class. His studies of marine wildlife began at the Marine Laboratory in Ballynakill Co. Galway with a small group of scientists, of which were gathered by the late Ernest W. L. Holt., in 1898. The group focused on gathering material from the fishery and looking at the marine biological problems there. Later in his life, Farran connected with The Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction in 1900. He enjoyed his time here and was even promoted to be the Chief Inspector of Fisheries. Farran continued his work with the Department until his retirement in 1946.
Studies
Farran’s work was first based off a vast range of marine zoology, but it wasn’t until later in his career that he began to work on studying planktonic organisms which is what he was mainly known for. He specifically studied Copepods, which are aquatic crustaceans. Farran was brought material from all around the world from other scientists because of their admiration of his work. Farran was a widely published scientist and had his work published in many journals, a few of them include; The Royal Irish Academy, The linnean Society, Exploration of the Sea, and The Zoological Society. However, Most of his work was published in the Scientific Investigations of the Fisheries Branch of the Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction. When he began nearing the end of his career his work was more focused on the administrative side of his job rather than the scientific work he preferred. Farran did still manage to continue his work with planktonic organisms throughout the remainder of his life even close to his death on January 5, 1949 at the age of 72. Farran still studied after his retirement, and even participated in an experiment of breeding of oysters in tanks at Cromane, Co Kerry in 1947 and 1948 just before he died.
Works
Farran, G.P. 1905. Report on the opisthobranchiate Mollusca collected by Professor Herdman, at Ceylon, in 1902. pp. 329–364 in: Report to the government of Ceylon on the pearl oyster fisheries of the Gulf of Manaar 3, Suppl. Rept. No. 21. Royal Society, London.
Farran, G.P. 1908. Second report on the Copepoda of the Irish Atlantic slope. Rep. Sea inland fish. Irel. Sci. Invest. 1906. Pt. : 19-120.
Farran, G.P. 1913. The deep-water Asteroidea, Ophiuroidea and Echinoidea of the West Coast of Ireland. Department of Agriculture and technical instruction for Ireland, fisheries branch, scientific investigations 1912, 6, 1-66.
Farran, G.P. 1926. Biscayan plankton collected during a cruise of H.M.S. “Research”, 1900. Pt. 14. The Copepoda. J. Linn. Soc. London, Zool. 36: 219-310.
