To thank our loyal members for their years of support and to get to know new members, VLIZ invited all VLIZ members on Friday evening 24 June 2016 for a midsummer evening walk on the Ostend east bank. Enthusiastic volunteers from Seawatch-B, the last year started philanthropic citizens' science project sponsored by a. o. VLIZ membership contributions, demonstrated their skills. Members were...

On 29 June 2016 Evy Copejans of the Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ) received in Orlando the International Award for Marine Education from the board of the National Marine Educator Association ( NMEA). With this prize the American network of marine educators rewards the excellent work and the leading role played by VLIZ since 2009 at international level to introduce the need for more Ocean...

On 10 June 2016 – on the occasion of the celebration of World Ocean Day 2016 – the winners of the European Sea Change ideas contest were announced. The non-profit organization ‘Safe Coastal Tourism’ has won both the European and the Belgian prize with their idea to raise awareness among children about the dangers of the sea. Check their winning video here. The winning idea will serve as an...

Scientists from the Western Indian Ocean region were trained by VLIZ staff, in preparation of the second International Indian Ocean Expedition (IIOE2). In this large-scale long-term concerted research action several countries, from within and outside the region, cooperate under the umbrella of IOC/UNESCO, and this for the preparatory phase as well as for the execution of the measuring campaigns...

Since its start in 2012(*) the pool of instruments and other infrastructure within LifeWatch.be infrastructure has grown substantially. That this infrastructure is well used and that it stimulates the start-up of new innovative research was well proven on Monday 23 May at the second User Meeting of LifeWatch.be Infrastructure, which was organized at the Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ) in Ostend...

In November 2015 CREST started, standing for ‘Climate Resilient Coast’. This team, with expert scientists from three Flemish universities, from various government departments and consultancy agencies, wants to gain deeper insight into the physical processes that occur in our coastal zone. Via the website and the CREST newsletter you can be kept updated on their results and findings.

Every year VLIZ employs several students working the month of July, August or September. Interested student employees may send a CV, letter of motivation and preference of activity or department before 31 March.

The Ballast Water Management Convention aims to prevent the further spread of invasive exotic species through international shipping and can soon enter into force. Since the convention includes a clause under which exemptions can be granted to certain ships for a period of 5 years, Belgium wishes to move forward with the exemption procedure. In this framework, VLIZ was contacted to conduct a...

On February 12, Bruges was the place to be for those involved in marine sciences in Flanders and surroundings: for both scientists (junior and senior), as well as people from marine trainings, marine companies and marine policy. The 363 participants were presented a nice overview of the actual research performed at universities and scientific institutes and had ample opportunities for networking.

The vibrocorer is an ideal research instrument to study undisturbed cores of a relative large length. VLIZ disposes of an OSIL high-power Vibrocorer system that can collect cores up to 3 m long and a diameter of 96 mm. The device is deployed aboard the research vessel Simon Stevin where cores can be taken up to a depth of 100 m.

To have, by 2030, a world-wide cooperation for a sustainable, state-of-the-art global ocean observing system: this is the new ambition of POGO (Partnership for Observation of the Global Oceans). The data will serve the needs of science and society.

Have you got a creative, innovative idea for how to increase people’s awareness and appreciation of the ocean? If so, you should enter the Sea Change project’s Think Big, Think Ocean video contest.

The Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ) developed - together with DataCite - a procedure to assist marine scientists in publishing their data with a Digital Object Identifier (DOI). This formal data publication creates a better traceability of data sets and improves the recognition of the scientific work.

The laureate of the VLIZ Communication Award can benefit from a personal communication coaching by the Communication department of the Flanders Marine Institute in the course of the following year. Young marine scientists and engineers who want to participate in this contest should send us before 31 January 2016 a motivation letter according to the conditions given on the VLIZ website.

During a period of four years, the CREST project ( Climate Resilient Coast) will investigate the wave action on the Belgian coast in a changing climate. More specifically, the effects on the dynamics of the coast and implications for future safety strategies will be investigated. This project is a cooperation of the research institutions and private partners and is funded by the Flemish Agency for...

How to prepare biodiversity data and analyse them with the LifeWatch virtual labs and web services? On the LifeWatch Data Analysis Workshop of 26-27 November 2015 in Ostend the trainees learned how to tackle these problems in a most efficient way.

On 12 February 2016, the Flanders Marine Institute organises the 16th edition of the VLIZ Marine Scientist Day. This day will again try to highlight the diversity, quality and relevance of marine and coastal sciences in Flanders with extensive poster and oral pitch presentations. For the first time, a selection will be made of 20 ‘pre-doc’ and 5 ‘post-doc’ abstracts for the oral presentations. In...

A measuring system for wind driven sand transport, a set-up for acidification experiments with algae and a multi-transducer parametrical echosounder are the three new research instruments that will be purchased by the Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ) for marine research in Flanders and its surroundings. These three instruments were selected by the Scientific Committee through a call for proposals...