Sound impact on fish populations

The first of April was the official start of Phase II of the collaborative “PCAD4Cod”-project on the effect of sound on fish populations. Hans Slabbekoorn, associate professor at the IBL, is the principal investigator and collaborates with three PhD-students, Dr. Erwin Winter, (Wageningen Marine Research), Dr. Jan Reubens (Flanders Marine Institute) and several international experts. The Joint Industry Programme on E&P Sound and Marine Life invested € 2.000.000 into the project for the coming two years.

Nemertea Portal launched!

The Nemertea are now available through their own Portal: the World Nemertea Database.

Nemertea and Parasite experts together at VLIZ, during a double WoRMS-LifeWatch workshop

On April 24-26 2017, the Flanders Marine Institute – home of the World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS) – welcomed 23 editors, with expertise in Nemertea (3) and Parasites (20). Both groups were at VLIZ for the first ‘double’ LifeWatch-sponsored workshop.

The EMODnet biology (phase 3) project kicks off in Ostend

The EMODnet biology (phase 3) project kicks off in Oostende from 25-26 April 2017.

 

European Tracking Network (ETN) Workshop

On 19-20 April, the Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ) hosted a two-day workshop to address several questions to enable such ETN network to become active and operational.

Towards a better data transfer to and from the maritime economy

The COLUMBUS project published the document ‘'Use and sharing of marine observations and data by industry' that addresses the specific needs, bottlenecks and challenges regarding the use of marine data by the industry. The publication contains a number of recommendations and some good practices in order to obtain a better data flow from and to the maritime economy, and to enhance Blue Growth.

Double EurOBIS/OBIS training in Poland

From 3 till 7 April, the EurOBIS Data Management Team provided a double training workshop in Poland. During both workshops, the participants were submerged into EurOBIS & OBIS, and other related initiatives such as EMODnet Biology and LifeWatch, and how all these initiatives relate to GBIF. Next to a general introduction, the participants were trained in how to process their own datasets to submit them to EurOBIS, from where they will flow to OBIS.

Open call to design a new logo for the World Register of Marine Species

2017 is the tenth anniversary year of WoRMS. One of the major actions planned for this year is a re-vamping of the WoRMS website. This will include a brand-new logo.

Preparations to launch DiatomBase enter their final stage

Last week, 15 taxonomic experts for DiatomBase got together for the first time, during a LifeWatch-WoRMS sponsored workshop. This get-together is the official start of DiatomBase, a world register of all marine, non-marine, recent and fossil diatom species.

The Register of Antarctic Species moves forward

The launch of the new Register of Antarctic Species (RAS) is planned for July, during the Twelfth SCAR Biology Symposium. Meanwhile, the preparations to get this Portal populated are ongoing, and this included an intensive training of the involved editors in the use of the online platform.