News

The project EUROFLEETS – “Towards an alliance of European research fleets” - funded by the European Commission in the 7th Framework program was launched on 20-22 September, with a meeting of about 100 scientists and fleet operators in Paris. VLIZ is one of the 24 partners.

With the website of the World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS: www.marinespecies.org) the VLIZ and worldwide taxonomic experts aim to provide the most authoritative list of names of all marine species globally, ever published. The number of visitors to this website is increasing. Now monthly 1,000,000 hits are counted, meaning on an average day more than 2,000 visits per day.

In order to give marine scientists in Flanders the opportunity to stay informed about the latest developments in the field of oceanography in general and marine data and information management, marine biodiversity and ocean modeling in particular, the IOC Project Office for IODE has started - in cooperation with the Flanders Marine Institute - with the organisation of scientific seminars. On 19...

The MARBOUND database, documenting the boundaries of the Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ's) of countries worldwide, is updated again. The last version differs from version 3.0 in the repaired boundary between Canada and USA and a higher precision of the boundary between Denmark and Germany (at the Flensburg Fjord). The new shapefiles, together with their earlier versions, are now available on the...

The Flanders Marine Institute VLIZ heavily stakes on web applications, thus enhancing the visibility of marine reserach results.

The Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ) started its activities in the autumn of 1999. Now, a decade later, we are proud to announce the celebration for ‘10 years VLIZ’ on 26-27 November 2009 at the Thermae Palace Hotel (Ostend). Block your diary and be there!

Are you the next laureat of the ‘VLIZ North Sea Award’? Scientists or research groups can submit their subscription file until the 10th of October 2009.

Did you recently graduate at a Flemish university or technical college? Are you proud of your marine (or coastal) thesis? Then you múst apply for the VLIZ Thesis Awards for Marine Sciences 2009! Subscription is possible till the 10th of October 2009.

This publication gives a colourful and well-illustrated account of the operation of the VLIZ druing the calender year 2008. It was the year in which the additional investment subsidy for 2008-2009 was approved. The subsidy allows the purchase and renovation of additional land-based facilities on the East Bank in Oostende, the purchase research equipment for the new research vessel Simon Stevin and...

The MARBOUND database is updated again. In the newest version 3.0 the borders of the Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ) are tight-fitting to a high resolution shoreline dataset (GSHHS). The new shapefiles, together with their earlier versions, are now available on the MARBOUND website.

The Coastal & Marine WIKI is an innovative source of up-to-date high quality information on coastal management and marine sciences. The more than 1,100 articles in this Internet encyclopaedia are provided by and for coastal professionals.

The media gallery of VLIZ has a new item: the collecion ' Marine stamps’: a remarkable acquisition of more than 2,100 stamps depicting divers marine and maritime themes in an online archive.

The North Sea, the Wadden Sea and the Schelde Delta: all of them are valuable nature areas with scenic wildlife. However this underwater world is invisible for most of us. Discover this sea world now from behind your PC on the webiste www.SeaOnScreen.org.

The 2009 edition of the VLIZ Young Scientists' day on 6 March attracted 158 participants. A day full of presentations of invited speakers, demonstrations, a poster session, a photo contest and a lot of networking with the marine scientists of Flanders and environs. Here you can find all pictures, presentations, the book of abstracts and the winning posters and pictures.

A three-day colloquium (18-20 March 2009) will focus on the impacts of Global Climate Change on heritage in the Low Countries; with special attention on the impacts of rising sea levels and increased river flooding.

Discover who are the laureates of the North Sea Award and the VLIZ Thesis Award for Marine Sciences.

We invite you all to the ninth edition of the ‘VLIZ Young Scientists’ Day’. On this annual marine event, we will welcome ±200 researchers from the North Sea region. This year a broad spectrum of marine and coastal science will be put into the spotlight offering marine scientists the opportunity to get to know each other and to learn about the latest research in an informal, interdisciplinary ‘sea...

In our MARBOUND database an update of the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) files is done. The shapefiles, together with their earlier version, are now available on the MARBOUND website.