News

Planet Ocean, VLIZ’s main educational project, is revised and relaunched. The online learning platform is aimed at youngsters (only avaliable in Dutch - www.planeetzee.be) featuring learning modules and class excercises relating to investigation of the coast, seas and oceans. Every year classes can take part in the Planet Ocean competition and win the first prize of a week-long expedition aboard...

VLIZ and Flanders ' Maritime Cluster organize for the first time a job fair for marine and maritime companies for the more than 300 young marine scientists, who annually participate in the VLIZ Young Marine Scientists ' Day. It offers offers an occasion to liaise with new graduates and young researchers (actively) looking for a future job in the marine and maritime sector. Do not hesitate to see...

Why is there so much foam on the beach and what is that stinking smell of the sea? How do these large amounts of green algae come in fishnets? How is that certain cultured mussels are not suitable for consumption? Scientists from various institutes and research disciplines working together within the framework of the European project ISECA want to respond to these and other questions. They would...

Also on this fourteenth edition the VLIZ Young Marine Scientists' Day (7 March 2014, Bruges) will try to highlight the diversity, quality and relevance of marine and coastal sciences in Flanders. We challenge all marine and coastal scientists to prepare a short abstract (max. 500 words: cf. template) by 16 December 2013, in which your research is presented in a clear, concise and attractive way...

'Marine Art' was a project where art students were brought into contact with marine scientists. The aim was to enhance the art students’ ocean knowledge and observation skills, to stir up curiosity for seas and the ocean, and to give inspiration to the creative process. The enthusiasm of 1 250 participants resulted in 65 workshops and an exposition with more than 300 art works. The fancy...

By EurOBIS, the European section of the International Ocean Biogeographic Information System (OBIS), the European marine species distribution data are made freely available. To give the system more visibility and its own identity, a new EurOBIS website was launched recently: www.eurobis.org.

The Catalogue of Life (CoL) has the ambitious objective to list all species that occur worldwide, on land and at sea. There was already a contribution to this initiative from the World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS), but recently Leen Vandepitte and Wim Decock– both working in the VLIZ data centre for the WoRMS data management team – became member of the ' CoL Global Team ' and the ' CoL...

The Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ) & HYDRO vzw organize the Prize Dr Edouard Delcroix 2013. This international scientific prize, with a value of 25 000 EUR, will be awarded to a researcher or a research team for an original scientific study on the links between "the marine environment and human health".

During the past 4 years THESEUS combined findings from 8 study sites - including the Scheldt estuary - and developed a Decision Support System (DSS) for sustainable decision making, specifically applied to these sites. On the final conference, on 18 October 2013 in Brussels, the coastal engineers, ecologists, sociologists and economists share their findings. Interested scientists and policymakers...

On 31 August 2013 it happened. The former Flemish research vessel RV Zeeleeuw, renamed RV Mtafiti, departed from the harbour of Ostend for its 7 week journey to Mombasa, Kenya. There the ship will be used by the Kenyan Marine and Fisheries Research Institute (KMFRI) to carry out marine studies of benefit to the local population and to several regional tasks in the West Indian Ocean.

Did you recently graduate at a Flemish university or technical college? Then you have to apply for the VLIZ Thesis Awards for Marine Sciences 2013! Subscription before the 30th of November 2013.

Will you be the next laureate of the ‘VLIZ North Sea Award’? Individual scientists or research groups can submit their subscription file until the 30th of November 2013. Mostly Ph.D. theses are submitted, but a (series of) peer-reviewed papers are also permissible.

The Navigating the Future series provides regular pan-European summaries of the current status of marine research, priority recommendations and future scientific challenges in the context of European societal needs. Navigating the Future IV has been launched in Brussels on 20 June in the presence of EU Commissioner Máire Geoghegan-Quinn.

In the framework of the Flemish contributions to the LifeWatch infrastructure, the Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO), Ghent University and the Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ) installed a high-tech sensor network to monitor the habitat use and migration patterns of large birds in Flanders. The first data received from several nesting gulls gave already very surprising first results.

KBIN-OD Natuurlijk Milieu (MUMM) and VLIZ co-ordinate the operations of the research vessels BELGICA and SIMON STEVIN in order to maximise their availability to the marine science community. Therefore MUMM and VLIZ each year launch a common call for ship time for the following year.

With the 'Super Integration Call' and the 'Embarked equipment Call' the EU FP7 project offers ship-time on board of EUROFLEETS-research vessels and the use of large marine equipment. The RV Simon Stevin is operational within EUROFLEETS2.

In 2012, the VLIZ Annual Report was thoroughly redesigned: next to a printed report, in which a selection of the most striking new initiatives and highlights are shown, the more detailed figures and extensive information on the numerous internal and external projects are made available in a digital annex. We hope you enjoy reading the first Annual report 'new style'!

On the 3rd of May, 2013, the handover of the RV Zeeleeuw to the Republic of Kenya became a fact. The oceanographic research vessel of the Flemish Government will now sail under the Kenyan flag and will be named RV Mtafiti, Swahili for ‘researcher’. An appropriate name, since RV Zeeleeuw has served Belgian and international marine researchers in the southern bight of the North Sea, for thirteen...