LifeWatch

Join the 5th edition of the Big Seashell Survey at the Belgian beaches!

Who is not fascinated by shells on the beach? Picking up shells, admiring them and trying to find out the story behind the find. And if at all possible, to give science a helping hand at the same time. That is what the Big Seashell Survey is all about!

LifeWatch

What is the difference in the soundscape of the Gulf of Tribugá in Colombia and the Belgian Part of the North Sea?

A new LifeWatch paper compares two different soundscapes: the Gulf of Tribugá in Colombia and the the Belgian Part of the North Sea (BPNS). This study is of great importance as a general marine soundscape baseline in order to map possible future disturbances of port construction or to evaluate whether policy measures taken are effective. The comparison shows that biophony dominates the Gulf ot Tribugá while anthropophony is dominant in the BPNS.

LifeWatch

RBINS and RMCA recruit: Scientific Collaborator (m/f/x) for the BopCo project

The Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences and the Royal Museum for Central Africa are looking for a Scientific Collaborator to join its LifeWatch BopCo project.

LifeWatch

Mapping the eel migration routes

With the use of 96 data loggers, scientists of the Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO), Ghent University and the Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ) succeeded to map the migration routes of eels in the North Sea. The results show that the majority of the Belgian eels migrate through the English Channel, the narrow sea passage between England and France. Although this seems a logical thing to do, some choose to migrate over Scotland. The reason for these different choices is still under study. The eels are probably guided by certain sea currents.

LifeWatch

Formally introducing: the World Register of Introduced Marine Species (WRiMS)

In a publication hot off the press, the WRiMS editors and the WoRMS Data Management Team discuss the data sources and history, the data validation, the database structure and software, the data management and the future needs of WRiMS.

LifeWatch

Call for nominations for the WoRMS Top-Ten Marine Species of 2021

Once again taxonomists have continued to publish many wonderful new species throughout the last year, despite all the challenges post by a global pandemic situation. So as we approach the end of 2021 it is time to think about nominations for The WoRMS Top Ten Marine Species of 2021!

LifeWatch

LifeWatch citizen scientists trained in ‘identification of fish from beach waters’

In November, the enthusiastic citizen scientists of the SeaWatch-B beach observation network were offered another opportunity for in-depth training. This time, the focus was on identifying small fish in the beach waters. Recently Seawatch-B is included as a citizen science project within LifeWatch VLIZ.

LifeWatch

Catalogue of Life: 20 years of documenting life on Earth

This year, 2021, marks CoL's 20th anniversary and it is a time to celebrate! Milestones include reaching over 2 million accepted species and the completion of the new Catalogue of Life infrastructure.

LifeWatch

European Tracking Network for fish has reached over 500 million detections

In recent years, fish tracking technology has revolutionized our knowledge on fish migration and behaviour. Today, the European Tracking Network (ETN) integrates the European efforts of hundreds of users, dealing with thousands of tagged fish from a multitude of species. Within this LifeWatch initiative, 500 million detections so far have taught us a lot on fish species such as Atlantic bluefin tuna, European seabass and sturgeon.

LifeWatch

WoRMS endorsed as a Project Action under the Ocean Decade

Last week, WoRMS received endorsement by the Ocean Decade as a Project Action, entitled “Above and Beyond – Completing the World Register of Marine Species (ABC WoRMS)”.