News

Six vessels will cover ten times Norway's area in search of the mackerel. This year you can follow them live on the map.

Lobsters in protected areas have bigger claws than lobsters in areas where they are fished, according to a new study. 

Hardangerfjorden has developed a clear green tint, prominent enought to be observed from space. The reason is microscopic.

Last spring Atlantic salmon were tagged with satellite tags in Southern Norway. Now they have phoned home. 

The water entering the Barents Sea is not as cooled down as it used to. This has a large effect of the climate in the area and may lead to fish and other marine life migrating. 

New analysis of old samples shows that eels in Norway get twice as old as previously thought. 

If our man Ronald gets 10 out of 10, his new “trainee” gets 9. 

What do whales do when nobody is looking? Researchers are trying to find out using audio recordings.

Recently hatched herring do not navigate by compass, but by following the sun.

In the 2000s, the Norwegian and Russian authorities reduced the fishing pressure on cod and haddock in the Barents Sea. Combined with three good year-classes, that led to record populations.

In a major new initiative, scientists at IMR will study how to get more food from the ocean into our ovens – without putting our health and the environment at risk.

Able-bodied seaman Andreas Wolden takes 2,000-3,000 photos on each trip to the polar regions. As a keen photographer, he never tires of meeting polar bears.

Below the sea’s surface, the cod spawning season is now well underway. We have trapped cod in a pen rigged with cameras and hydrophones - you can follow the spawning live.

Malnutrition is a bigger problem than hunger in the world today. Researchers hope that a small freshwater fish may prove to be packed with important micronutrients. 

Calanus can be killed by small concentrations of the delousing agent hydrogen peroxide.

Large doses of teflubenzuron kill – small doses cause stiff joints. The question is how small.

Millions of cleaner fish are used in farm cages to eat lice off salmon every year. However, there is limited research into how efficiently they do this job. Now scientists have gone through all published studies in the field – and found large knowledge gaps.

And that is just one of the challenges that seals face in a changing world. 

The Institute of Marine Research’s monitoring of the sea shows that temperatures have fallen in recent years.

Right now, millions of northeast arctic cod (skrei) are migrating from the Barents sea to the Norwegian coast to spawn. They are the lucky few survivors.

The polar cod, a key species in the Barents Sea ecosystem, is struggling with recruitment due to warmer waters and declining sea ice cover. 

Where do young marine researchers go to learn about the latest and greatest sonar technology? To a narrow fjord in western Norway, onboard RV “G.O. Sars”.

The ocean can supply much of the food required to feed an ever growing world population, primarily through the sustainable expansion of marine aquaculture. But not without improved ocean management and new technology.

Peter Haugan of the Institute of Marine Research has been asked to chair the national expert committee that will set the course for the Norwegian contribution to the UN Decade of Ocean Science.

Physically separating salmon from salmon louse larvae reduces infestation of salmon by 75 percent compared with a normal sea cage. This has now been scientifically demonstrated using a “snorkel” cage at a commercial fish farm.

They were testing methods to survey for corals when the IMR researchers discovered the “new” deep water coral reef Bukkarevet in the Hardangerfjorden threshold. 

A new study by the Institute of Marine Research (IMR) shows that a major oil spill off the Lofoten and Vesterålen islands could produce long-term changes in the ecosystems in the Norwegian Sea and Barents Sea.

If farmed salmon receive the minerals in their feed in organic forms, they need smaller amounts of them to grow big and strong. As a result, less of these minerals enter the environment.

The Institute of Marine Research has analyzed 182 Our Ocean commitments from the past five years. Overall, the commitments have mainly generated attention and funding. The direct impact on sustainable fisheries and management is less obvious.      

Researchers used to enter their survey data into cumbersome spreadsheets. These days they have StoX – a free, open source program, developed at the Institute of Marine Research (IMR) that has now been documented in an international research journal.