News

In 2100, a cubic meter of ocean water will contain 10 to 50 free-floating particles of microplastic, or fifty times more than today. Although these average concentrations are significantly lower than the safe concentrations for oceanic ecosystems (i.e. 6650 plastic particles per m3), local exceedings of this threshold are already possible. Coastal seabeds and beaches threaten to contain...

Marine biologists say they have demonstrated an e-solution to the management of the millions of names of animals and plants on Earth that other biologists could adopt.

The ‘Remotely Operated Vehicle’ (ROV) Genesis of VLIZ spent the last two and a half weeks in the Spanish Mediterranean aboard the Spanish research vessel Sarmiento de Gamboa. Commissioned by the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research (NIOZ) the underwater robot carried out visual observations of the seafloor and the overlying water column in the wake of the Apollo II, a crawler developed for...

The latest Future Science Letter No. 3 from the European Marine Board (EMB) - entitled "Strengthening Europe's Capability in Biological Ocean Observations" - reflects the vision of a strategic pan-European forum on the current (and future) capacity and relevance of biological observations in the European seas. In contrast to chemical and physical observations, observation networks on biological...

Scientists and data managers from KBIN, UGent, VLIZ, ILVO and ULiège have succeeded in saving a lot of old still analogue datasets on the Belgian part of the North Sea for loss (data archeology). In combining these with more recent measurement results, they obtained a data series spanning over a period of 40 years, which revealed interesting insights. For example, the nutrients phosphate and...

The 2017 annual report presents the highlights for VLIZ in 2017 and focuses on the services VLIZ offers to the marine scientific community, policymakers, educators and the general public. Performance indicators (KPIs), numbers and lists all together give a transparent overview of the organization and functioning of the institute.

Since 1998, Flanders has supported UNESCO's activities in the field of science in various disciplines; like some important projects relating to the ocean and coastal areas by the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC). During the FUST OCEAN event in the week of 14 to 17 May, this collaboration was put in the spotlight. For those who could not attend and still want to get an overview of...

The marine landscape in Belgium is large and rapidly evolving, however the knowledge is very widespread. The Compendium for Coast and Sea is the integrated knowledge platform for the professional user and bundles the most relevant scientifically based information. An updated version of the Compendium for Coast and Sea is prepared every three years and new information products are created. The...

At the World Conference on Marine Biodiversity in Montreal (Canada), Prof. Dr. Carlos M. Duarte received the first Carlo Heip International Award for outstanding accomplishments in marine biodiversity science. Carlos Duarte is a worldwide leading authority on the ecology of seagrasses and is considered one of the most versatile aquatic ecologist of his generation.

With the approval of the Blue Accelerator project by the Flemish government, the starting shot was given to the development of a maritime test platform in the Belgian part of the North Sea, 500 meters outside the port of Ostend. This new innovation and development platform will serve as a 'living lab' to perform tests in the context of the expansion of Blue Energy projects (offshore wind energy...

The latest VLIZ animation film shows how our coastal zone and the North Sea must have looked like in a far and very distant past, which animals lived there and to what extent these landscapes were used by humans. The short film also indicates the marine research that is being carried out to unravel the story behind these submerged prehistoric landscapes and buried fossils. Also how this knowledge...

The Flanders Innovation and Entrepreneurship agency gave the green light to a new spearhead cluster on "blue economy". This Blue Cluster must focus on partnerships between knowledge institutions, government institutions and companies, and develop innovative projects that appeal to the economic potential of our North Sea. VLIZ played its role as a contact point for the marine research landscape and...

On Monday 23 April the long-awaited exhibition “1914-18 - The Battle of the North Sea” opens its doors to the public. This expo commemorates the U-boat peril from World War Iand the British response to it – the raids on Zeebrugge and Ostend. Housed in the Provincial Palace in the historic heart of Bruges (Belgium) the exhibition brings the gripping story of the U-boat threat on the North Sea. On...

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...

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)...

Each year VLIZ recruits several students working for us in the months of July, August or September. Interested student employees may send a CV, letter of motivation and preference for period and activity or division before 16 April 2018.

Every year the Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ) honors the work of meritorious marine researchers. In this way we aim to encourage them to continue to provide high-quality scientific contributions in the future and to promote marine scientific research in Flanders and the North Sea.The winners of the North Sea Award and the Thesis Awards edition 2017 have just been announced. They will receive...

From 15 to 17 November 2017, the very first EMODnet Open Sea Lab hackathon took place in the Startup Village in Antwerp. The event was organized by EMODnet, together with the R&D and innovation hub IMEC and VLIZ. Seven international teams participated in this bootcamp and competition. They were challenged to discover the potential of the open data offered by EMODnet. All of them developed...