News

The visionary report Navigating the Future V – written by marine and ocean experts from thirteen European countries – shows the priorities that ocean research (and its funding) should focus on in the coming decade.

The 2018 annual report presents the highlights for VLIZ in 2018 and focuses on the services VLIZ offers to the marine scientific community, policymakers, the industry, educators and the general public. Performance indicators (KPIs), numbers and lists all together give a transparent overview of the organization and functioning of the institute.

The World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS) and the Australian Faunal Directory (AFD) signed an agreement to work together more closely and facilitate the exchange of data. By joining the forces the two registers promote the use of biodiversity information systems for scientific research.

VLIZ is one of nine partners who will work together in the Interreg North Sea project GEANS – Genetic tools for Ecosystem health Assessment in the North Sea region – to monitor seabeds in the North Sea more accurately and efficiently by DNA barcoding. Instead of the time-consuming manual identifications that are common now, DNA passports of those species known to be sensitive indicators of...

The VLIZ Marine Science Day 2019 of 13 March brought together some 400 marine scientists, students and companies in Bredene for a day full of inspiring presentations and demonstrations. The MEC Staff Versluys turned out to be just big enough. Could you not participate? Or do you want to review some things quietly? Just take a look at our VMSD19 retrospective page. You will find all the video of...

On 26 and 27 March, a Basque delegation paid a visit to Flanders. Visitors could get acquainted with several Flemish internationally renowned institutions active in marine and maritime research and research support. The delegation visited the InnovOcean site, which accomodates VLIZ and a other internationally renowned marine institutions. This two-day working visit was part of the Declaration of...

The VLIZ data center, or the Flemish Marine Data Center (VMDC), is accredited as an IODE National Oceanographic Data Center. VMDC is only the 10th data center that receives this accreditation for marine data management and services. The IODE accreditation is the result of a collective effort by the entire data center and is a reward for the innovative and service-oriented work that the data center...

Every day taxonomists are busy in labs, museums and the field, to collecting, cataloguing, identifying, comparing, describing and naming species new to science. Some 300 taxonomists globally contribute their valuable time to keeping the World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS – www.marinespecies.org) up to date. Today 19 March, on World Taxonomist Appreciation day, we wants to celebrate our...

The aquaculture sector is growing rapidly worldwide, up to 8% per year. When culture activities take place in the sea or the coastal zone, there is a risk that parts of the installations will come loose or that operational materials end up as litter in the marine environment. Completely in line with the European objective to drastically reduce plastics in the sea, the AQUA-LIT project aims to...

The VLIZ library has written a new acquisition management plan. Aside from a description of the library’s history, the collection’s content and acquisition strategy are clearly defined. A new classification scheme is also proposed and the services are analyzed. The plan is an important step to professionalize, and to clarify the importance of the marine library for Flemish marine scientific...

Each year VLIZ recruits several students working for us in the months of July, August or September. Interested student employees may send a CV, letter of motivation and preference for period and activity or division on 30 April 2019 at the latest.

Breathing in sea air helps to fight cancer and to prevent high cholesterol. This is shown by research by Ghent University and the Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ) as published in the scientific journal Scientific Reports today.

The new, orange coloured data loggers that are used within the LifeWatch program to gain more insight into the migratory routes of the European eels Anguilla Anguilla are easily found by beachcombers and tourists. By putting all captured temperature and depth data together, we will learn more about the behavior of this critically endangered species during its migration through the English Channel.

The Atlas of European Marine Life presents a range of new and innovative data products on marine life in European waters. The offered tools, models and maps illustrate the diverse range of outputs that can be generated from EMODnet Biology hosted data. The data products help to answer fundamental and policy-driven questions related to managing the natural and anthropogenic impacts in European...

With the launch of the Compendium for Coast and Sea 2018, the Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ) has reached the third edition of this multifunctional guide for marine experts. Main aim is to encompass the dispersive information from the Flemish-Belgian marine sciences in a scientific and neutral way, but all publications were thoroughly revised – working intensively together with an extensive...

The remains of the wars in Europe can still be found on the seabed of the North Sea today. The many wrecks of ships and planes, often with their fuel and ammunition on board, testify to these turbulent times. But in the North Sea a lot of new economic activities (wind farms, aquaculture, coastal defenses ...) unfold in the context of Blue Growth. In order for these new maritime developments to...

In order to coordinate marine research and innovation even better, the Baltic states and some North Sea countries have decided to work together more closely. The European-funded BANOS coordination and support action (BAltic and NOrth Sea Coordination and Support Action) will outline a joint research and innovation programme for the North Sea and the Baltic Sea over the next three years. The...

On Tuesday the 15th of October, a team consisting of Sven van Haelst from the Flanders Marine Institute VLIZ, Jessica Vandevelde from the Flanders Heritage Agency (Onroerend Erfgoed) and Robert de Hoop from the Dutch Maritime Heritage Agency did a survey on the wreck of the Dutch East India Company ship ‘t Vliegent Hart lying in Belgian waters.