News

On September the 23th, and in the presence of Flanders’ Minister Philippe Muyters, Governor of West-Flanders Carl Decaluwé and the Quebecian Minster of Transport and Maritime Strategy Jean D’Amour, the Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ) and l’Institut des Sciences de la Mer de Rimouski ( UQAR-ISMER, Québec) signed a Memorandum of Understanding. Joint research projects, training programs or funding...

Librarians and staff members of public, university and scientific libraries came together at their biennial congress ‘ Information by the Sea ’ from 17 to 18 September 2015 in the Casino Kursaal Ostend. On Thursday 17 September, they were introduced to marine research and paid a visit to the VLIZ-library and the research vessel Simon Stevin.

After more than a year of preparations, the large molluscs component of World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS) is accommodated in a new species database: MolluscaBase. The purpose of the MolluscaBase is to develop a global database that contains taxonomic information about all marine, freshwater and terrestrial molluscs. Moreover, MolluscaBase will cover both recent and fossil molluscs.

From 15 to 30 September, classes from the 4th, 5th and 6th year of secondary education can register for a workshop in marine research (Dutch only). This year, there are 11 different workshops organized by a diversity of marine research groups. To subscribe and discover the workshops: PlaneetZee site. One message: be quick!

In order to estimate the size and fishing efforts of the Belgian recreational fishing fleet, port and sea-based observations were carried out for over a one year period. This study is a first step towards a systematic monitoring of the Belgian recreational fishing sector and its effects on coastal fishing populations and ecosystems. The first results are presented in a policy informing brief (only...

Invasive non-native species are species that are introduced by humans into an area that is not their native habitat and where they flourish excessively. Being a practitioner of leisure activities, it is easy to take accidentally some non-native species with you to another area different than their own native habitat. The non-native species can attach to the hull of sailing boats, yachts and kayaks...

This annual report gives an overview on the important research supporting achievements and highlights realized by VLIZ over the past year. Numbers and performance indicators can be consulted in the attachments. From this year onwards, the annual report is only available online.

The WoRMS Steering Committee held its meeting on 8 June 2015 – World Ocean Day! – at the Hellenic Centre for Marine Research (HCMR) in Crete. At this meeting, several items relevant for the future of this authoritative marine species register were discussed. Some important decisions were made and recommendations formulated, in order to enclose more information than only taxonomic names. Some...

In order to ensure the future of the (Belgian) coastal fisheries urgent targeted actions need to be taken. Within the framework of the GIFS-project the position paper ' Inshore fisheries: too important to ignore?' has been published in which this position is supported. An adapted position paper is made by the Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ), specifically for the Flemish/Belgian situation: '...

ScheldeMonitor exceeded the threshold of 6000 Open Access documents regarding research and monitoring in the Scheldt Estuary. This is more than half of the entire collection.

On Saturday, 6 June 2015, VLIZ celebrated the seas and ocean with SeaFestival ZOUTBAD. Despite the beautiful weather, 234 interested visitors came to CC de Grote Post in Ostend, where they could enjoy underwater films, learn through lectures and the infostands of the Seamarket, but also take action during various workshops. Dirk Draulans moderated a Blue Café around coastal development, while...

The EU large scale research project AtlantOS aims to advance Atlantic ocean observation to become more integrated, more efficient and more sustainable. The Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ) participates in the work package responsible in increasing the harmonization of data flows and cooperates in the setup of an Atlantic fish tracking network.

Since the installation of the LifeWatch.be GPS tracking network for large birds in June 2013, more than 100 European Herring Gulls, Lesser Black-backed Gulls and Western Marsh Harriers have been tagged with a lightweight, solar powered GPS tag. In this way, scientists of the Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO) collect data to improve the knowledge on the individual variation in the...

In 2012 a cooperation agreement was concluded between VLIZ and the Kenya Marine and Fisheries Research Institute (KMFRI) to promote collaboration in marine sciences as well as the exchange of data, expertise and information. Besides the donation of the former Flemish research vessel (now RV Mtafiti), this cooperation resulted in an international conference on the sustainable use of Kenyan marine...

By means of the grand data network project EMODnet ( video), Europe aims in the forthcoming years to unlock all available marine observations and data in order to make them accessible to diverse users. Concerning the biological data, heaps of data and attractive data products are made freely available through the recently renewed website www.emodnet-biology.eu.

Planet Ocean, VLIZ’s main educational project, is an online learning platform for youngsters featuring learning modules and class excercises relating to investigation of the coast, seas and oceans. Since 2014 classes can take part in PlanetOcean@Work, a series of hands-on workshops in marine laboratories combined with a competition. The first prize winner of the edition 2014-2015, high school...

WRIMS – a database of introduced and invasive alien marine species – has officially been released to the public. It includes more than 1,400 marine species worldwide, compiled through the collaboration with international initiatives and study of almost 2,500 publications.

The new website LifeWatch.be brings together all the contributions and data from the now strongly extended partnership.