Oversimplified doomsday prophecy
The recent article in the journal Science: “Impacts of Biodiversity Loss on Ocean Ecosystem Services” by Worm et al. has attracted a great deal of media attention. The article extrapolates the negative trend in world fisheries to predict a total collapse by 2048. However, there are good reasons for claiming that the prediction is based on an oversimplified and partly meaningless presentation of the current situation. [15 Nov 2006 14:26] |  |
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Vice-President of ICES
Managing Director of IMR, Mr. Tore Nepstad, has been elected Vice-President of the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) for a period of three years. [27 Oct 2006 11:32] |  |
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Update report on North Sea conditons
The North Sea water circulation in the 2nd quarter was characterized by stronger than average inflow between the Orkneys and Shetland in April, and strong circulation through the Skagerrak in April changing to low circulation in May. [24 Oct 2006 14:34] |  |
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Aquaculture Research for the Future
The Minister of Fisheries and Coastal Affairs Helga Pedersen officially opened the new facilities at the Institute of Marine Research’s research station in Matre on 10 of October 2006. In connection with this event, the seminar “Aquaculture Research for the Future” was organised. [12 Oct 2006 11:47] |  |
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Monitoring of stress and fish welfare
Farmed fish experience a number of stressors that may affect their health and welfare. Stressors can be acute, like crowding during transport or lightning during thunderstorms, or chronic, e.g. high stocking density and low water-exchange rates, which result in high levels of metabolites in the water for long periods of time. How these stressors affect the fish depends on species, stage and age, and also the degree of habituation to the stressors. [09 Oct 2006 17:14] |  |
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Deeper than light in Genoa
The travelling exhibition "Deeper than light" produced by the MAR-ECO project and Bergen Museum will be in Genoa at the end of October 2006 to participate in a European Science Festival. The exhibition presents specimens and results from the exploration of the mid-Atlantic Ridge as well as paintings and photographs by artists present during the 2005 survey. [25 Sep 2006 09:57] |  |
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Notes from a Russian onboard the G.O. Sars
Every year since 1965, IMR and PINRO (Murmansk) have cooperated on the autumn investigations in the Barents Sea. From 1993, one or several scientists from PINRO have been onboard on one of the Norwegian research vessels during the joint surveys, and two years Norwegian scientists came onboard one of the Russian vessels. This has allowed a better and faster coordination of the investigations, especially when 4-6 research vessels cooperate on covering the total areas of the Barents Sea and around Spitsbergen. [18 Sep 2006 14:14] |  |
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An important step towards ecosystem based management
International experts will meet to present and discuss ecosystem based management of fisheries in Bergen 26–28 September. The Bergen Conference is a follow up of the conference on responsible fisheries held in Reykjavik in 2001 and the top meeting on sustainable development in Johannesburg in 2002. [04 Sep 2006 12:40] |  |
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Automated measurement of fish
The CatchMeter is a computer vision system that can automatically recognise the species of a fish and register its length along with other extended information on colour and shape. The system is currently installed on the IMR research vessel "G.O. Sars" and has been tested on three cruises and operated by non-expert users on a further two. In total more than 30.000 fish and 25 species have now been successfully analysed by the machine. [31 Aug 2006 11:25] |  |
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Pictures from a microscopic world
During a survey in South African and Namibian waters last year, fish eggs and fish larvae from a number of species were collected by scientists from the Institute of Marine Research (IMR) in cooperation with scientists from the region. The planktonic eggs and larvae are small and are best viewed through a microscope and therefore unknown to most people. Many of the species or close relatives are found also in more northern waters, and species such as monkfish, pearlside, horse mackerel, blackbelly rosefish (jacopever), gurnard and John dory are well known. [08 Aug 2006 11:50] |  |
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Glimpses from life 300 metres below the surface
Getting a bright light in the face and being filmed doesn't happen every day to the creatures at the bottom of the Barents Sea. Here are some highlights from a mapping survey conducted last month by scientists in the MAREANO programme. [07 Jul 2006 12:27] |  |
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Escapes of salmon from nets with different mesh sizes
On behalf of the Directorate of Fisheries, the Institute of Marine Research has been studying the relationship between mesh gauge and fish size. The study focused in particular on identifying the smallest size of smolt for responsible fish capture. A diagonal mesh size of 20 mm retains the minimum permitted smolt weight of 100 g. [03 Jul 2006 09:10] |  |
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Unique images from the deep
Copulating octopuses, feeding hermit crabs, squat lobsters and tiny crustaceans, sponges of all shapes and colours: IMR scientists are ecstatic about the fantastic images their high-definition camera has brought up from the deep during a four week long survey in the Barents Sea. Never before have they been able to watch life unfold on the seabed of the Arctic in such great detail. [23 Jun 2006 14:30] |  |
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Franco-Norwegian cooperation
The French Research Institute for Exploitation of the Sea (Ifremer) and the Institute of Marine Research (IMR) signed a Memorandum of Understanding in Paris on 4 May. With this Memorandum, Europe's two largest centres of marine research have formalised an already close cooperation and have agreed to expand access to each other's research vessels and facilities. [18 May 2006 12:51] |  |
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fisheries.no - the official website
This week, Minister of Fisheries and Coastal Affairs Helga Pedersen launched the www.fisheries.no portal at the European Seafood Exposition in Brussels. The portal contains information in English about the state of the Norwegian commercial stocks, resource management and control, aquaculture, the marine environment and the work being done to ensure that Norwegian seafood is safe.
fisheries.no has been prepared and is edited by the Ministry of Fisheries and Coastal Affairs in cooperation with the IMR, the Directorate of Fisheries, the National Institute for Nutrition and Seafood Research and the Norwegian Food Safety Authority. [09 May 2006 22:22] |  |
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Namibia - a success story
Norwegian bilateral assistance to Namibia in the fisheries sector started in 1990, the same year as Namibia became independent, and went on until 2005. Norway has contributed about NOK 400 million to this work, and a recent independent review concludes that the cooperation between Namibia and Norway has been largely successful. IMR and Centre for Development Co-operation in Fisheries have played a key role in this work. [04 May 2006 15:49] |  |
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New Norwegian-Russian benthos cooperation
IMR and PINRO have initiated a joint three-year research programme on benthos in the Barents Sea, set to start this year in August - September at the joint ecosystem cruise. Russian scientists have a long tradition of studying bottom habitats in the Barents Sea, and this new programme will imply access for IMR researchers to valuable Russian time series results going back to 1926. [19 Apr 2006 13:28] |  |
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IMR to coordinate national monitoring programme
In a new Integrated Management Plan for the Barents Sea, the Norwegian government proposes setting up an advisory group to coordinate the monitoring of the marine environment of the Barents Sea, headed by the IMR. [11 Apr 2006 11:15] |  |
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Management of fish diseases: eyes wide shut
IMR researchers on fish health call for a shift of paradigms in the management of fish diseases. Although few aquatic animal diseases have been sufficiently modelled to carry out credible risk assessments, Mortensen, Korsnes and Bergh claim, in their paper "Eyes wide shut" that "a century of experience has told us a story – of diseases on the move, and about the ways they travel". [03 Apr 2006 11:18] |  |
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Heat record in the Barents Sea
The Barents Sea has never been this warm during winter before. This is one conclusion reached after a meeting of Norwegian and Russian scientists. [24 Mar 2006 13:33] |  |
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New development cooperation with Nicaragua
IMR and the Directorate of Fisheries have signed a contract with the Nicaraguan government on development cooperation in the fishery sector. This is the continuation of a cooperation that was ended in 1995 and will primarily focus on developing Nicaraguan fishery research and administration. [24 Mar 2006 11:07] |  |
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Unexpected spawning congregations of deep-sea fish discovered
For centuries scientists have thought of deep-sea pelagic fish as nomadic wanderers. However, new results from the ongoing MAR-ECO programme have revealed that these fishes may in fact be gathering at features such as ridges or seamounts to spawn. The research has important implications for how deep-sea ecosystems should be managed to prevent devastation by deep trawling activities. [27 Feb 2006 15:13] |  |
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New EU project on genetic impact
IMR is coordinating the new EU-project “Evaluation of genetic impact of aquaculture activities on native populations - a European network (Genimpact)”. [21 Feb 2006 15:18] |  |
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The seabed in Norwegian waters to be mapped
Norwegian waters cover a total of over 2 million km2. As of today the knowledge about the seabed in our waters is limited. In fact, we know far more about the surface of the planet Mars than about the seabed right outside our coastline! In 2005, the Norwegian government allocated NOK 5 million for the first phase of an interdisciplinary programme, MAREANO, which aims to map and study the seabed in Norwegian waters – initially focusing on environmentally sensitive areas of the Barents Sea. [14 Feb 2006 12:27] |  |
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Norway’s position in the Environmental Performance Index 2006
In the Environmental Performance Index released last week at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum, Norway has fallen from second to eighteenth place. The ranking is partially based on a Productivity Overfishing Index, defined as a relationship between biomass production and fish catches in a given area. Research carried out by IMR shows that it is not correct to use this index in the same way in different ocean regions as the transfer efficiency between different levels in the food chain varies widely from one type of ecosystem to another. [02 Feb 2006 14:37] |  |
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Norwegian spring-spawning herring shift overwintering grounds
A characteristic of the Norwegian spring-spawning herring stock is that its pattern of migration changes from time to time. These changes can be large, and the herring’s overwintering grounds, for example, have long alternated between the open sea and fjords. Following a stable migration period that has lasted for about 30 years, we have recently entered a new period of important changes. [31 Jan 2006 22:54] |  |
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Distinction for 'The Norwegian Sea Ecosystem'
The journal Choice has picked The Norwegian Sea Ecosystem by Skjoldal (ed.) to be part of their annual Outstanding Academic Titles list. Choice provides book reviews for academic libraries, and the Outstanding list includes 682 books out of almost 7000 titles reviewed during the past year. [30 Jan 2006 10:54] |  |
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