On Friday 25 February 333 marine scientists from Flanders and around met at the eleventh edition of the VLIZ Young Marine Scientists' Day at the site Oud Sint-Jan in Bruges. The day was full of surprising pitch speeches and an extensive poster session. This gave the participants a nice overview of the latest, current marine and coastal research. The public could vote for the best speaker and poster. The floor was also given to the winners of the VLIZ awards 2010. In what follows, we give an overview of all winners and many photographs of the event.

By means of the 94 abstracts submitted to the abstract book ons can get a nice overview of the current marine research in Flanders and around. Twenty contestants were invited to prepare a short pitch presentation (max. 5 minutes) for the plenary session. The others could present their work during the poster session. The audience could vote for the best chat and the best scientific poster.

Top-3 pitch presentations: 1: Jan Reubens - Site fidelity and movements of cod (Gadus morhua) at a wind farm using acoustic telemetry [] 2: Frederik De Laender - Cocktails in the Arctic: are the polar bears loaded yet? [] 3: Joke Hollants - The Art Nouveau of biology: exhibiting seaweed-bacterial symbioses []

Top-3 scientific posters: 1: Braarup Cuykens Ann, Michiel Claessens, Hannelore Maelfait, Elien Dewitte, Annelies Goffin, Eric W.M. Stienen & Colin R. Janssen - Sea, beach and b irds: plastics everywhere [] 2: Coates Delphine, Jan Vanaverbeke & Magda Vincx - A close up on the soft-sediment macrobenthos around offshore wind turbines []

3a: Haelters Jan, Francis Kerckhof, Thierry G. Jacques & Steven Degraer - The harbour porpoise Phocoena phocoena in the Belgian part of the North Sea: trends in abundance and distribution [] 3b: Van Hoey Gert & Kris Hostens - The use of benthic indicators for environmental status assessment [] The Key-note speakers:

Christiane Lancelot (Université Libre de Bruxelles, Ecologie des Systèmes Aquatiques) - Ocean science: research with no boundary [] Waddah Saab (European Commision DG RTD; coordinator EU strategy marine & maritime research) - Marine science and technology for Healthy and Productive Seas: what is the EU doing? [] Pictures: in the VLIZ photo gallery

VLIZ North Sea Award 2010: dr. Marijn Rabaut: 'Lanice conchilega, fisheries and conservation: towards an ecosystem approach to marine management' - [Ph.D. thesis] [] VLIZ Thesis Award Marine Sciences 2010: Thomas Vandorpe: 'Seismic stratigraphy of Plio-Pleistocene deposits on the shelf edge SW off Mallorca, Spain' - [M.Sc. scriptie UGent - RCMG] [] Quinten Vanhellemont: 'Use of MODIS imagery for the assessment of the variability in intertidal microphytobenthos biomass at regional and global scales' - [M.Sc. scriptie UGent - MARELAC] []