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  • Celebrating the 10-year anniversary of WoRMS with another publication: general insights and experiences from the DMT
    Celebrating the 10-year anniversary of WoRMS with another publication: general insights and experiences from the DMT

    Celebrating the 10-year anniversary of WoRMS with another publication: general insights and experiences from the DMT

    Earlier today, PLoS One published a new Open Access paper in their WoRMS collection, entitled ‘A decade of the World Register of Marine Species – general insights and experiences from the Data Management Team’. The paper was written on occasion of the 10-year celebration of WoRMS, to highlight what WoRMS has been able to accomplish in the last decade and where we wish to go in the future …
  • High-tech LifeWatch observatory unravels marine life in North Sea
    High-tech LifeWatch observatory unravels marine life in North Sea

    High-tech LifeWatch observatory unravels marine life in North Sea

    LifeWatch Belgium, as a part of the European LifeWatch infrastructure, can be considered as a virtual laboratory for biodiversity research. With the support of Flanders to LifeWatch, VLIZ has a.o. developed a Marine Observatory. It aims to collect scientific data with innovative technology in an automated manner, and to make these data freely available to all potential users. On the one hand, several innovative devices to map phytoplankton (Flow Cytometer) and zooplankton (Video Plankton Recorder) are used during monthly campaigns in the Belgian part of the North Sea. On the other hand, four passive networks register and detect the presence of larger organisms (birds, porpoises, bats and fish) with a minimal human effort.
  • MarineRegions.org launches update register worldwide maritime borders and names
    Lifewatch

    MarineRegions.org launches update register worldwide maritime borders and names

    The Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ) has been investing for more than 10 years in an open source system for making maritime borders available and names underwater locations worldwide: MarineRegions.org. The download of shapefiles (polygons or polylines) and checklists of maritime and underwater locations is free for academic and educational users*. In the latest version of Marine Regions (v10), new treaties were added and the disputes known from the earlier version addressed to us were addressed.