Comprehensive Model of Annual Plankton Succession Based on the Whole-Plankton Time Series Approach
Comprehensive Model of Annual Plankton Succession Based on the Whole-Plankton Time Series ApproachJean-Baptiste Romagnan 1,2 *, Louis Legendre 1,2 , Lionel Guidi 1,2 , Jean-Louis Jamet 5 , Dominique Jamet 5 , Laure Mousseau 1,2 , Maria-Luiza Pedrotti 1,2 , Marc Picheral 1,2 , Gabriel Gorsky 1,2 , Christian Sardet 3,4 , Lars Stemmann 1,21 Sorbonne Universités, UPMC Univ Paris 06, UMR 7093 LOV, F-75005, Paris, France, 2 CNRS, UMR 7093 LOV, F-75005, Paris, France, 3 Sorbonne Universités, UPMC Univ …
International Master Program in Marine Physics
at IUEM, The Marine Institute of Brest University, FrancePhysical oceanography, geophysics and naval hydrodynamics are based upon a common foundation of physics, mechanics, and applied mathematics. The Marine Physics masters offers a two years intensive program with fundamental lectures, advanced courses,internships and research projects. The program is held at the University of Brest in collaboration with engineering schools, Ifremer and research laboratories at IUEM. The training provides care …
Scholarships for MSc Course in Applied Oceanography (Malta)
In October 2015, the Physical Oceanography Unit of the IOI-Malta Operational Centre at the University of Malta will be offering once more its successful Master course in Applied Oceanography. This will be open to both local and foreign students with a post-graduate degree. An international faculty of experts will be participating in delivering the course. Scholarships to attend this course are also available for students with high academic records relevant to the course. Application deadlin …
Success for JERICO-NEXT – a continuation project
Recent news from the European Commission advised that JERICO-NEXT has received a score of 14.5/15 during evaluation and shall therefore be funded under the H2020 call (research and innovation actions).In the continuity of JERICO (FP7), the objective of JERICO-NEXT consists in strengthening and enlarging a solid and transparent European network in providing operational services for the timely, continuous and sustainable delivery of high quality environmental data and information products related …
Physical Oceanography sea-going Researcher
Open positionPhysical Oceanography sea-going ResearcherIfremer Centre: Brest, France.Department: Oceanography and Ecosystems DynamicsResearch unit: Physical Oceanography Laboratory (LPO)Closing date to apply: 13 April 2015Working conditions: tenured position, full-time appointment including oceanographic cruisesIfremer, the French Research Institute for Exploitation of the Sea, is an internationally recognized leader in marine sciences, pushing the frontiers of knowledge of the oceans and their …
Jerico NEXT proposal scores highly and receives funding
We are very pleased to inform you that the JERICO consortium have received the official notification from the European Commission for Jerico NEXT.”With a score of 14.5 on a total of 15, I’m glad to inform you that the project will be funded by the European Commission at the expected cost level, of just under 10M€.” – P. Farcy.Firstly, we wish to all of the consortium for the active participation toward this success and express our satisfaction at the prospect of collaborating closely over the ne …
Black Sea Biannual Scientific Conference
The Black Sea Biannual conference is back in its 4th iteration and will be held between the 28th and 31st October in Constanta, Romania later on this year. It will continue on concerted efforts initiated by the previous BSC scientific conferences to use science and information technology to understand and deal with the environment problems of the Black Sea, to strengthen science/policy interface and regional cooperation towards better governance of environment protection to preserve the Black Se …
Plastic Pollution in the World’s Oceans: More than 5 Trillion Plastic Pieces Weighing over 250,000 Tons Afloat at Sea
Plastic pollution is ubiquitous throughout the marine environment, yet estimates of the global abundance and weight of floating plastics have lacked data, particularly from the Southern Hemisphere and remote regions.Here we report an estimate of the total number of plastic particles and their weight floating in the world’s oceans from 24 expeditions (2007-2013) across all five sub-tropical gyres, costal Australia, Bay of Bengal and the Mediterranean Sea conducting surface net tows (N=680) and vi …
Oyster (c. gigas) recruitment in Mediteranean lagoons ; new approaches for studying larval connectivity using MARS3D modeling tools
The Thau lagoon, located at the South of France, provides 10% of the French pacific oyster Crassostrea gigas production (Robert et al., 2013). Despite this intensive shellfish production, the larval recruitment of this species within the Thau lagoon is still misunderstood and spat collection remains highly variable; as a consequence, shellfish farmers rely mostly on hatchery’s spat.In 2012, the PRONAMED II project was launched, aiming to improve our understanding of the C. gigas reproductive cyc …
New Marine Infrastructure in Finland
Finnish Marine Research Institutes have started a national marine research infrastructure consortium (FINMARI) here in Finland. The aim is to facilitate international and national use of experimental resources efficiently. This is done in a close co-operation with other international and national infrastructures and ESFRI’s as ICOS, EMBRC and EURO-ARGO.The infrastructure includes research infrastructures of 3 Finnish research institutes, 3 universities, and a state-owned shipping company. The in …
International Geographical Union Regional Conference in Moscow 2015
The Regional Conference of the International Geographer’s Union (IGU) will take place in Moscow next summer for the third time since the International Geographical Congress of 1976, when over 2,000 participants from around the world gathered in the Soviet capital for lectures, discussions, workshops and excursions. The pace of global change has since accelerated in directions that once seemed unimaginable.The IGU is among the world’s oldest international research associations. The first Internat …
Eight sharks and ray species to be protected by international convention on endangered species
Eight shark and ray species are now protected under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species as of 14th September 2014. The listed products coming in and out of the EU will now have to be accompanied by export or import permits issued by EU countries. The eight species – porbeagle, oceanic whitetip shark, scalloped hammerhead, great hammerhead shark, smooth hammerhead shark and manta rays – were earmarked for protection in March 2013 and join three shark species – basking shar …
EMODnet – Connecting people with data.
On 6 October 2014, EMODnet will organize a pre-event at the EurOCEAN 2014 Conference in Rome (7-9 October) from 14:00 to 18:00: EMODnet – Connecting people with data.The workshop will introduce EMODnet and the data services it provides to a wider audience emphasizing the need for close collaboration between the various actors and related data initiates as well as between science and industry for new technologies and services in support of Blue Growth. It will consider how EMODnet fits in the wid …
An endangered species since the 70s
Caretta caretta are commonly called “loggerhead” sea turtles due to their overly large heads with a horny beak that is significantly thicker than in other sea turtles. They have a reddish-brown shell, with a pale yellow plastron (underbelly) This species is the largest hard-shelled turtle in the worldBaby loggerheadsAdult males reach about three feet (nearly one meter) in shell length and weigh about 113 kilograms, but large specimens of more than 454 kilograms have been found.Sea turtles live …
One Planet, One Ocean – 2nd International Ocean Research Conference
The 2nd International Ocean Research Conference (IORC), organized by the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO,the Oceanography Society and the Fundacio Navegacio Oceànica Barcelona; is an opportunity for the scientific community to come together to plan the coming decade of international collaboration in marine science and technology, with a view to improving ocean governance.This conference has an interdisciplinary focus, encompassing oceanographic, social science and economic p …
Blue Growth: Unlocking the potential of the Seas and Oceans
Today, 26th June, sees the closing date of the first call under Horison2020 related to the topic of Blue Growth. A number of the calls closing today are in actual fact CSAs, however amongst this is the interesting call for supporting the Atlantic Ocean Cooperation Research Alliance.Since its launch last year in May 2013, through the Galway Statement, we did not get to hear much more about this Alliance between Canada, the US and the European Union. The goal of this partnership is to work toget …
New research ventures at IBW PAN Coastal Research Station (CRS) in Lubiatowo (communiqué of 16th June 2014)
Recently, a new survey has been commenced at the IBW PAN Coastal Research Station (CRS) in Lubiatowo (south Baltic Sea, Poland). Two additional wave buoys (one possessed by IBW PAN and one obtained from the Institute of River and Coastal Engineering of the Hamburg University of Technology for conducting joint research) have been deployed in the coastal waters so that there are now in total three Directional Waverider buoys (produced by Datawell BV, the Netherlands), moored in the close vicinity …
An EU maritime security strategy
The introduction to the Joint Communication addressed to the European Parliament and the Council says it all about Europe’s maritime significance:“Europe’s maritime interests are fundamentally linked to the well-being, prosperity and security of its citizens and communities. Some 90% of the EU’s external trade and 40% of its internal trade is transported by sea. The EU is the third largest importer and the fifth global producer of fisheries and aquaculture. More than 400 million passengers pass …
Opportunity for transnational access to FixO3 network observatories
This opportunity comes from the Europe-funded Fixed-point Open Ocean Observatory network (FixO³) project, coordinated by the UK’s National Oceanography Centre (NOC). As part of this initiative private companies and research institutions working on marine technology or wanting to conduct scientific research, have the opportunity to apply for access to one or more observatories and receive full scientific and technological support.The FixO³ project started in September 2013 with a European Commiss …
Climate Change, Understanding the Challenge Summer School 2014
The BC3 Summer School is organized in collaboration with the University of the Basque Country and is a high quality and excellent summer course gathering leading experts in the field and students from top universities and research centres worldwide.The BC3 Summer School will continue with the multidisciplinary approach. The structure of the school will follow the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) general meetings, with three main sessions that coincide with the subjects of the thr …
Jellyfish? Man or woman? Some facts about Portuguese Man of War Edit
Ever since the first death by a Portuguese Man of War has been reported in the Mediterranean in 2010 (in Sardinia) more and more people especially in the med got curious about this jellyfish. Ah no, first misconception, the Portuguese Man of War is not a jellyfish but rather a marine phylum, it differs from a jellyfish in so far as it is not actually a single multicellular organism but a colonial organism made up of many highly specialized minute individuals called zooids.It lends its name from …
2014 Jerico Summer School announcement
The topic of this summer school is “From data to decisions”. We aim to cover the entire marine and coastal information cycle from data gathering via data management, data dissemination, data analysis, data assimilation to data-based policy decisions for MSFD purposes. Please refer to the wiki for updates to this overall programme:1 day: dissemination: EMODnet backbones: EurOBIS/ICES, EuroGOOS, MyOcean and SeaDataNet1 day: data analysis: with DIVA (variational analysis) or DINEOF1 day: data assim …
Scholarships for postgraduate Course in Applied Oceanography – Malta
In October 2014, the Physical Oceanography Unit of the IOI-Malta Operational Centre at the University of Malta will be offering a new Master course in Applied Oceanography. This will be open to both local and foreign students with a post-graduate degree. An international faculty of experts will be participating in delivering the course. Scholarships to attend this course are also available for students with high academic records relevant to the course.Application deadlines for scholarships: 31 …
2014 Jerico Summer School announcement
The FP7 project JERICO will organise a 2nd summer school after the successful 2013 one held in Malta. The date has been set for the 14-20 June 2014 (Saturday – Friday) and the location will be around The Hague and Delft, in the Netherlands.The preliminary title of this summer school is “From data to decisions”. We aim to cover the entire marine and coastal information cycle from data gathering via data management, data dissemination, data analysis, data assimilation to data-based policy decision …
Microplastics Make Marine Worms Sick
Tiny bits of plastic trash could spell big trouble for marine life, starting with the worms, say a team of researchers from Plymouth University and the University of Exeter who report their evidence in a pair of studies in the Cell Press journal Current BiologyThose marine worms play a key ecological role as an important source of food for other animals. Work by Stephanie Wright from the University of Exeter found that if ocean sediments are heavily contaminated with microplastics, marine lugwor …
7th EuroGOOS Conference: Operational Oceanography for Sustainable Blue Growth
The EuroGOOS association together with the collaboration of the Instituto Hidrografico in Portugal will be organizing the EuroGOOS conference in Lisbon, Portugal between the 28th and 30th of October 2014. This conference is usually organized every 3 years. EuroGOOS association pushes the development of Operational Oceanography in Europe in the framework of UNESCO/IOC InternationalGOOS. The two and a half day conference will make debate between marine scientists and technologists, who develop and …
Towards a healthy Baltic Sea – HELCOM in a nutshell
Article Author: Kinga Polynczuk Photo by: Samuli KorpinenSince its establishment nearly 40 years ago, HELCOM (Baltic Marine Environment Protection Commission) has been committed to protecting the marine environment of the Baltic Sea from all sources of pollution through intergovernmental cooperation. HELCOM is the governing body of the Convention on the Protection of the Marine Environment of the Baltic Sea Area, known as the Helsinki Convention. The Contracting Parties are Denmark, Estonia, …
The new US IOOS Data Quality Control manual
February 2012 marked the establishment of the Quality Assurance for Real Time Oceanographic Data (QARTOD) project. The objective of this project was to regulate and make sure that a systematic process was used when using procedures for quality assurance and control in the observation of oceanic data. NOAA’s National Data Buoy Centre collaborated in this project as well. Together they are designing manuals each providing a checklist of QC tests for the collection of real time information that inc …
Seafood pathogen spreads to East coast of USA and Europe
During the summer of 2012 two separate shellfish-associated outbreaks of illness in humans occurred in New York and Northwest Spain. Both outbreaks were caused by a bacterium called Vibrio parahaemolyticus, a bacterium common in marine and estuarine environments. Previously, Vibrio parahaemolyticus serotypes O4:K12 and O4:KUT (termed Pacific Northwest or ‘PNW’ strains) were considered unique to the Pacific Northwest region, but have subsequently been identified in the Atlantic, according to an …
JERICO TNA sampling polar organic chemicals in marine water with organic –diffusive gradient in thin-film (o-DGT)
Chang’er Chen, Lancaster Environment Centre, Lancaster University, UK.This experiment under JERICO TNA started on 11th September, 2013 with the ferrybox together with the ‘Chem-Mariner’ unit in the ferry of Color Fantasy travels between Oslo (Norway) and Kiel (Germany) and with the fix station in Cuxhaven in Germany. The experiment is planned to end in the middle of October, 2013.The experiment is supported/collaborated with Kai Sorensen from NIVA for the Ferrybox and Daniel Proefrock/Wilhelm Pe …
The Jerico presentation at the MonGOOS 2013 annual meeting
See Attachments JERICO (5.1 MiB)
JERICO Workshop WP10
Date: 16-18 October 2013Location: Observatoire Océanologique de Villefranche/MerOrganisers: P.Farcy (IFREMER Brest France), G.Nolan (Marine Institute Galway Ireland), L.Coppola (CNRS LOV France)In the framework of JERICO, a workshop will be organised on the main results of WP10 to date.WP10 objectives are to examine the extent to which existing technologies can be improved and/or adapted to the benefit of coastal operational oceanography and to document and test emerging technologies that will u …
GESEBB glider Mission of the First TNA call of JERICO
July 4th, 2013: JERICO TNA GESEBB glider Mission started in front of Cape Matxitxako, in the southeastern Bay of Biscay.July 5th, 2013: Mission temporary suspended due to a leak occurred inside the digifin that run inside the cables of the antennas; glider was safely recovered near the deployment position.July 23rd,2013: Re-start of the GESSEB glider mission.Figure 1. CAMPE glider at AZTI-Tecnalia research centre in Pasaia (Spain) The GESEBB glider mission (http://www.jerico-fp7.eu/) of the firs …
Deep Oceans getting warmer
NBC Science News have recently published a news article based on information from Discovery Communications LLC (owners of The Discovery Channel) about the overall warming of the oceans which is happening at an alarming rate.El Nino in 1998, courtesy NASARecently the “global warming” phenomenon has started to be ignored by the general public, given that the prophesised catastrophes have not happened, but this is mostly due to the fact that the seas have been absorbing the extra warmth of the eart …
Follow the Glider
Follow the Glider is a web tool aimed at students and developed by CEFAS, IMEDEA (CSIC-UIB) and SOCIB (Balearic Coastal Monitoring and Forecasting System) as part of the European FP7 – JERICO project. It is based on the glider-monitoring tool available at www.socib.es.The aim is to help students from a variety of different grade levels to find out what underwater gliders are and gain awareness of their importance for coastal research. We also strive to enable students to monitor the gliders that …
Presentations from the Jerico mid term review
NameSize JERICO MID TERM REVIEW WP3 PetersenN10.9 MiBWP11 JERICO MID TERM REVIEW674.0 KiBWP6 MTR-Paris June201311.8 MiBJERICO MID TERM REVIEW General Presentation1.7 MiBWP8 MTR-Paris June2013 UPD1.7 MiBWP5 MTR-Paris June2013928.0 KiBWP2 JERICO MID TERM REVIEW3.6 MiBWP7 MTR 18 Juin 20132.0 MiBWP4 JERICO MID TERM REVIEW3.8 MiBWP9 Présentation MTR V14.8 MiBWP1 Présentation MidTerm Review1.1 MiBWP10-MTR40.2 MiBWP Financial Issue1.9 MiB
European Marine Board Position Paper 18 on Marine Protected Areas
A newly launched Marine Board Position Paper (number 18) presents key scientific priorities for Marine Protected Areas (MPA) management and calls for the rapid implementation of MPA networks in Europe.Marine paperCoinciding with the 2013 European Maritime Day stakeholder conference held in Malta, the paper explains that the establishment of MPAs in Europe is slower on the uptake than the equivalent land based protected areas. Moreover this is unco-ordinated and therefore happens sporadically and …
JERICO Biofouling Monitor Program
ISMAR-CNR (Institute of Marine Sciences – Italian National Research Council) developed a special sampling system (Biofouling Monitoring Box – BMB) to be deployed in 12 selected locations in Europe (amongst all JERICO partners) both in coastal and open waters (see Figure 1).The BMB (see Figure 2) is a monitoring device allowing to study the complexity of biofouling community. It was designed to simulate a wide range of sensors and sensor housing/containers, considering different substrates (metal …
White paper on dissolved oxygen measurements: scientific needs and sensors accuracy
The objective here is to review the practical accuracy and the precision of the existing oxygen sensors used in oceanography. The idea is to review all oxygen sensors mounted on fixed and lagrangian platforms (mooring, CTD profiler, glider, ARGO floats) used on coastal observatories. This report synthetizes the past experiences and recommendations for a better use of oxygen sensors in order to improve the quality of the oxygen data for scientific exploitations.
Richness of Mid-Atlantic ridge
Shallow waters close to the coasts are fertile ground for plankton and biological nutrients, allowing for marine life to thrive more. By contrast, in the deeper parts of the ocean, where the sun penetrates less, there is less growth potential. However in the middle of the Atlantic there is a ridge where water is shallower and therefore a potential ‘hotspot’ of biodiversity in marine life. The Plymouth Marine Laboratory has worked in the ECOMAR project with a strong scientific team hailing from 1 …
40th CIESM Congress – Marseille
The Mediterranean Science Commission formed by over 2,000 marine scientists, based for the large part in research institutes on the shores of the Mediterranean and Black Seas, come together for the 40th time in a Congress in Marseilles between the 28th October and 1st November 2013.The Commission, with headquarters in Monaco, has grown from the eight founding countries of its origin to 22 Member States today. These support a network of several thousand marine researchers, applying the latest sci …
JERICO TNA Reference Temperature Calibration (RTC) experiment at the “Centro di Taratura Oceanografica” (CTO) of the OGS in Trieste
February 28th to March 1st, 2013: JERICO TNA “Reference Temperature Calibration (RTC) experiment”The fourth JERICO TNA experiment took place between the 28th of February and the 1st of March 2013 at the OGS-Oceanographic Calibration Centre (OGS-CTO), the facility for oceanographic testing and calibration of the Department of Oceanography of the OGS (Istituto Nazionale di Oceanografia e di Geofisica Sperimentale), located in Trieste, Italy. The experiment proposal was submitted by HCMR at the Fir …
Open source for BFM model
Bologna University (UNIBO), the National Institute of Oceanography and Experimental Geophysics (OGS) and the Euro-Mediterranean Centre on Climatic Change (CMCC) joined forces to develop, use and disseminate an open source marine biogeochemical numerical model fully usable in coupled mode with ocean general circulation models.The model is the BFM (Biogeochemical Flux Model). In order to develop and promote its use by the largest possible audience, the three institutions formed a consortium aimed …
Rising acid levels may make sea sediments more toxic
by Cefas, UK A recent report by Cefas scientists found that ocean acidification, caused by climate change, could result in sediments contaminated with metals becoming more toxic and harming the animals that graze on that sediment.The study looked at crustaceans that feed on the surface of sediments from dredged ports and estuaries.The crustacean Corophium voluptatorThe crustacean Corophium voluptator”The combined effect on these animals, of coping with adapting to climate change as well as incre …
Bio-geochemical sensors calibration and intercalibration exercise at POSEIDON calibration Laboratory of HCMR in Crete
November 26th, 2012: JERICO TNA “Calibration and inter-calibration exercise of biogeochemical sensorsThe third JERICO TNA experiment (www.jericofp7. eu) started on Monday November 26th, 2012, with the setup of the instrumentation in the POSEIDON Calibration Laboratory of the Hellenic Center for Marine Research in Heraklion (Crete, Greece).The experiment was part of a research proposed by CNR to the First TNA call of JERICO.The main purpose of the experiment was to perform a calibration and an in …
Surf’s up! Wave glider trials in the North Sea
by Cefas, UK Scientists at Cefas are trialling a clever device that looks like a surf board but packs a wide range of sophisticated instruments to record a variety of marine conditions.The autonomous wave glider, hired from US firm Liquid Robotics, was deployed off Lowestoft on 30 January. This marks the first time such a device has been tested in the southern North Sea, where tides and currents are strong and shipping is busy.The 2m-long wave glider is self-propelled by wave action and has the …
The Impact of Hydro Energy Devices on the surrounding Wildlife
…a Study by UK Scientists Hydro energy is a form of renewable energy that can be generated using turbines. FLOWBEC is a National Oceanography Centre project whose aim is to monitor the effects of such devises on the surrounding wildlife. This is done at UK test sites, one of which is the tidal energy test area of the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) in Orkney. Together with an experienced team, researchers from the Universities of Bath and Aberdeen have created two sonar systems on a seabe …
Links Between Kuwait and CEFAS, Strengthened
An agreement was signed by the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (Cefas) and the Kuwait Environment Public Authority (KEPA) to start performing specialist environmental evaluation of Kuwait Waters. The contract was signed in London in April. This agreement stemmed from a long standing relationship with Kuwait, which dates back to the 1980s, as well as a good track record of delivering to clients in the areas of the Middle East. The agreement requests Cefas to assess and …
MyOcean 4U newsletter
MyOcean, the Ocean Monitoring and Forecasting system of the GMES Marine Service, has just launched a new edition of its newsletter with informative articles and updates on marine environmental monitoring. Professionals in the industry will enjoy reading about user workshops, past and upcoming events, online training and also access videos and documents related to all of the above.The full newsletter can be accessed here:http://www.myocean.eu/newsletter/MyO4U/03/MyO4u.htm
Symposium on The Future of Operational Oceanography 2013
‘The Future of Operational Oceanography 2013’ symposium will take place in Hamburg, Germany at the Congress Centre (CCH) from 8-10 October. The meeting will seek to broaden and galvanize the dialogue on new observational and modelling techniques and the subsequent benefits for a range of marine industries. There will be a wide cross-section of topics in which speakers are invited to submit talks and posters.For further information go to the official website for all information, from the breakdow …
EEA and EuroGOOS sign partnership agreement
The European Environment Agency (EEA) and the European Global Ocean Observation System (EuroGOOS) signed a partnership agreement on April 10th 2013. This agreement focuses on the issues related to marine in situ data.EEA and EuroGOOS sign partnership agreementThis means that they will work together to create a standard way of accessing data that comes from Regional Ocean Observing System (ROOS), a series of national institutions within the EU Member States, and that is currently made available t …
Successful JERICO Summer School in Malta
35 participants attended the first JERICO Summer school organised by the Physical Oceanography Unit of the IOI-Malta Operational Centre at the University of Malta between the 8th and 13th July 2013. The young researchers came from all over Europe, including participants from the southern Mediterranean countries and the Black Sea, and hailed from a variety of disciplines.The intensive programme on operational oceanography in the 21st century with a focus on the coastal seas featured high level le …
M.Sc. in Applied Oceanography – Malta
October 2013 sees the launch of a new challenging M.Sc. course in Applied Oceanography being offered by the Physical Oceanography Unit of the IOI-Malta Operational Centre at the University of Malta.Prof Aldo Drago – the brains behind this initiative – explained that such a course will provide a new channel for professionals that want to rise to the current challenges being posed in the areas of sustainable development, marine environmental policies, coastal planning and more. The programme …
The Ecosystem approach and fisheries
The project ‘Ecosystem approach to fisheries’ (2007-2012) developed and tested methods to support the implementation of an ecosystem approach to fisheries, thus contributing to the evidence base that supports the co-ordination and integration of fisheries and environmental management.The main objectives were to develop and test linked state and pressure indicators focused on the state of seabed habitats, biodiversity and fish communities (food webs). These were identified in an initial assessmen …
Jerico Summer School – July 2013, Malta
Don’t miss the opportunity to be part of the first JERICO Summer School to be held between 8th to 13th July in the beautiful island of Malta. Organised by the Physical Oceanography Unit of the IOI-Malta Operational Centre at the University of Malta in collaboration with CEFAS (UK), this event is free of charge and open to young researchers and PhD students with a background in oceanography wishing to expand their knowledge and share experiences. The selected participants are expected to cover th …
Malta Summer School Update
The Physical Oceanography Unit of the IOI-Malta Operational Centre at the University of Malta is making the final preparations to hold an international summer course on applied oceanography in the week 8th to 12th July 2013. The planning and coordination of the course is done by Prof. Aldo Drago jointly with the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (CEFAS), and is funded by the FP7 JERICO project with additional support by MyOcean and the International Ocean Institute. The …
European Maritime Day 2013
The 6th edition of the European Maritime Day Conference was held successfully in Valletta, Malta, on May 21 & 22, 2013. It has attracted the attention of the European and the Mediterranean Maritime community with 847 participants who attended the 27 sessions of the Conference. It was organised by the DG for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries of the European Commission in partnership with the Maltese Ministry for the Economy, Investment and Small Business, and the Maltese Ministry for Tourism.The …
Operational oceanographic products for Irish marine users.
The Marine Institute (MI) in Ireland has developed a capability in operational oceanography since 2003. This has involved increasing the number of places (stations) where we collect oceanographic data on buoys, coastal piers and ships, developing ocean nowcast and forecast models and using satellite images of ocean colour and temperature to observe changes in the surface of the ocean. With this combination of in-situ observations, model forecasts and satellite images we can look at the past, cur …
Deepwater Horizon, Two Years On
by Jo Foden, Cefas, UKDeepwater Horizon (Courtesy of U.S. Coast)What are the effects of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, two years on? For the families of the 11 people who were killed, of course, their tragedy means life will never be the same. What have been the environmental and economic effects of the oil spill?It’s been bad news for the deep-water coral communities 1.2 km beneath the Gulf’s surface. Corals were found with brown flocculent material and showed signs of tissue damage (Scien …
JERICO TNA Dissolved Oxygen measurements in the Corsica Channel
The second JERICO TNA experiment (www.jerico-fp7.eu) started on Tuesday November 20th, 2012, with the implementation of automatic Dissolved Oxygen (DO) measurements in the Corsica Channel, Ligurian Sea, Western Mediterranean. The experiment is planned to last for twelve months under the aegis of JERICO TNA and then continue for at least other six months as a collaboration of the Institute of Marine Sciences of the National Research Council of Italy (ISMAR CNR), the Observatoire Oceanographique d …
International Conference on Marine Data and Information Systems
The International Conference on Marine Data and Information Systems of 2013 (IMDIS 2013) will be held in Lucca, Italy on the 23rd till the 25th of September 2013. It aims at providing a general idea of the progresses that have been made in the last years when it comes to the efficient infrastructures for the management of large and various data sets. The sessions will focus on infrastructures, technologies and services for different users: environmental authorities, research, schools, and univer …
Jerico TNA First Glider Mission
October 23rd, 2012: JERICO TNA first glider mission started in the Balearic Sea.October 30rd, 2012: Mission temporary suspended due to battery problems; glider safely recovered 45 miles East of Menorca. The mission will re-start as soon as possible.January 31st, 2013: Mission re-started. SOCIB’s Seaglider sdeep03 is now heading to Oristano (Sardinia, Italy). The first experiment under JERICO (http://www.jerico-fp7.eu/) TNA started on Tuesday October 23rd, 2012, with a deep glider mission fr …
Android Mobile App for Sea Pollution
Screenshot of the Argo Sentinel AppA new app for Android phones and tablets is opening up the notification of oil spills and sea pollution to the wider general public. The ‘ARGO Sentinel’ app allows users to notify an incident, follow what is happening and see other volunteers. It also links directly into Twitter and Facebook for updates thus unleashing the power of social networking into the arena of environmental monitoring. The app has been designed by the National Institute for Research (CNR …
MEDESS-4MS: A Mediterranean project tackling oil spill emergencies in the Mediterranean Sea
Although the Mediterranean Sea makes up less than 1% of the global marine surface, it sees 20% of the global tank ship maritime traffic. This traffic inevitably means numerous cases of oil pollution at sea, sometimes severe, not to mention pipeline or oil terminal accidents (EEA, 2006). The well-documented events of Prestige in 2002 and BP Deepwater Horizon in 2010 have widely and conclusively demonstrated that an efficient forecasting system is necessary in order to manage similar emergency sit …
100 Cefas SmartBuoy deployments in the Thames
by Jo Foden, Cefas, UK Fig1: Dave Sivyer, Cefas, UK Scientists from the UK’s Centre for Environment, Fisheries & Aquaculture Science (Cefas) have just returned from a short survey on the RV Cefas Endeavour, during which they serviced a Cefas SmartBuoy (http://www.cefas.defra.gov.uk/our-services/monitoring-and-mapping/autonomous-monitoring/smartbuoys.aspx) at the Warp Anchorage site in the Thames. SmartBuoys are autonomous, ‘intelligent’, automated, multi-parameter recording platforms used t …
Introducing the Baltic Sea portal
by Seppo KnuuttilaA great source of information about the Baltic Sea – its state, research, activities and more can be found at http://www.itameriportaali.fi/en_GB/. The site is multilingual in three languages (Finnish, Swedish and English). The portal is the fruit of a cooperation between the Finnish Environment Institute, the Finnish Meteorological Institute and the Ministry of Environment in Finland. Within the site one can find several interesting sections. Baltic Sea Now prov …
European Maritime Day 2012
20 May – European Maritime DaySince the declaration in Strasbourg in 2008, every 20th May Europe comes together to celebrate the Maritime Day. The aim is to make people reflect on the importance of the sea in many aspects of our everyday life – whether for leisure, work, economy or transport.A large conference for stakeholders is organized every year, and in 2012 this honour is given to Sweden – where the event will be held in the former shipyard area of Gothenburg. It will be split over three d …
The Titanic sailed 100 years ago
by Jo Foden, Cefas, UKThe RMS Titanic set sail from Southampton on her maiden voyage 100 years ago, on 10th April 1912 (http://www.rmstitanic.net/). Just five days later it famously hit an iceberg in the North Atlantic Ocean and sank, never reaching the destination of New York. RMS Titanic was the largest floating man-made object at that time and was carrying 2,224 people. Only 710 survived the disaster. TitanicThere have been several events organised to mark the anniversary. In Belfast, No …
Coral degradation due to acidification getting worse!
by Jo Foden, Cefas, UKAs carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere in increasing quantities, pH declines in the world’s oceans and the effects on coral reefs could be more harmful than previously thought. A study by Friedrich et al. (2012) looked at the effects of decreasing pH and carbonate ion concentrations, i.e. ocean acidification, on coral reefs. (A) “healthy” coral reef in the Great Barrier Reef with good water qualitySince reef-building corals need carbonate to build their skeletons …
New Issue of Science of Tsunami Hazards. 2012, Vol. 31, No 1 (MARCH 19, 2012)
The new 2012 issue of Tsunami Society’s Journal “SCIENCE OF TSUNAMI HAZARDS” is now available. This Certified, OPEN ACCESS Journal is included in the prestigious international academic journal database DOAJ maintained by the University of Lund in Sweden with the support of the European Union. “SCIENCE OF TSUNAMI HAZARDS” is also preserved and archived at the National Library, The Hague, NETHERLANDS and at the Library of Congress, Washington D.C., USA. Older issues are also archived at the US Los …
Can Real-Time Sea Floor Observations Alert Us To Earthquakes?
Subduction zones are described as the movement of the earth’s plates. When these collide the cold crust sinks and the other plate overlaps on top of it. For Geologists this simplified explanation is not enough; they suspect that the plates become locked together and later on after centuries spring back and create an earthquake.The Pacific Northwest Cascadia fault is a subduction zone fault that stretches from mid-Vancouver Island to Northern California, capable of producing a 9 magnitude earthqu …
Calypso is watching
In Greek mythology, Calypso was the daughter of the titan Atlas (also known as Oceanus) and was a nymph living on the magical island of Ogygna. As referred to by Homer in ‘The Odyssey’, she seduced and imprisoned Odysseus on his journey home from the Trojan War, and promised him immortality if he would sojourn permanently with her in the cave. Some people are convinced that Ogygna is indeed the island of Gozo, within the Maltese archipelago, which consequently is also known as Calypso. Over Raml …
JERICO – Putting Coastal Observatories One Step Ahead
JERICO is the result of the collaboration of twenty seven partners coming from seventeen European countries. JERICO is an FP7 project that takes advantage of the different backgrounds of the partners involved, who are contributing their invaluable and diverse experience and expertise when it comes to coastal observations that derive from the technology used for data collection though results and dissemination of informational material.The operational monitoring of the coastal seas is an importan …
Euro-Mediterranean Conference 2012 on Research and Innovation
Barcelona 2-3 April 2012The EU believes that research and innovation are key instruments in promoting sustainable economic growth and job creation. The Southern Mediterranean region called for innovative and ambitious responses from the European Union. The European Commission has established all Mediterranean countries as priority. The EC has also developed a new strategy which is found in two joint Communications of the European Commission and the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Af …
Jerico Website Launched
The new Jerico website has now been launched.
