LifeWatch and JERICO-NEXT join forces
plankton collage

LifeWatch and JERICO-NEXT join forces

Though plankton communities are omnipresent in our oceans, their wavering dynamics remain obscure. The international collaboration of the LifeWatch and JERICO-NEXT projects enabled to study plankton in the southern North Sea with state-of-the-art infrastructure at an optimal coverage.

WoRMS featured in Blue Planet II
BluePlanetII_showtile

WoRMS featured in Blue Planet II

"Covering almost three-quarters of the Earth's surface, the world’s great oceans are home to an incredibly diverse web of life. The World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS) currently lists just under a quarter of a million species, with new ones being identified all the time. But even as we begin to...

Finding Ocean Health in a sea of data
waves

Finding Ocean Health in a sea of data

Ever wondered how the Ocean Health Index gets data for its global assessment of the entire ocean? There's more to it than you'd guess! And Marine Regions is part of the answer!

Assessing the state of the oceans
WOA II

Assessing the state of the oceans

The second World Ocean Assessment – WOA II – is a global exercise by hundreds of marine scientists to evaluate trends and identify knowledge gaps in the world ocean. Two chapters of WOA II have made use of several components of the LifeWatch Species Information Backbone.

Observing plankton to understand ocean health
RV Stevin mesh

Observing plankton to understand ocean health

Increasing human activities are putting the ocean under stress, threatening the ecological health of marine ecosystems and the services they provide to society. Since plankton are sensitive to changes in environmental conditions and are short-lived, they can be used as early warning systems for the...

PETROBRAS: where industry and science touch
sea turtle

PETROBRAS: where industry and science touch

Environmental responsibility is a hot topic these days! For the Brazilian oil and gas magnate Petrobras, this means caring for the safety of their operations and undertaking actions to balance their activities and the welfare of their workforce and of the communities. By improving products and...

Augmenting the potential of vessel position data with Maritime Boundaries (MarineTraffic)
speed boat

Augmenting the potential of vessel position data with Maritime Boundaries (MarineTraffic)

MarineTraffic displays the movement of over 550.000 vessels worldwide, based on their Automatic Identification System (AIS) signals. The website attracts millions of users on a monthly basis. Since March 31st, these vessel locations can also be plotted against the global Exclusive Economic Zones...

Tracking the fish trails
school of fish

Tracking the fish trails

Understanding the importance of estuarine and coastal areas for the migration of fish and recovery of populations requires tracking a fish’s movement. For this purpose, Pieterjan Verhelst analyses the tracks of tagged Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua) and European eel (Anguilla anguilla), detected on the...

Tuning in on porpoise FM
Porpoise

Tuning in on porpoise FM

Long-term data series of cetacean presence in the Belgian Part of the North Sea (BPNS) are essential to understand their habitat use and conservation needs. The prospects and predicaments of the cetacean passive acoustic sensor network of the Belgian LifeWatch observatory were therefore investigated...