[04.2015] POLSHIFT conference

The POLSHIFT conference was held at the Marine Research Institute on the 14-15th April 2015. The conference’s objective was to prepare future collaborations for examining the impact of global climate change on North Atlantic species distributions. Cecilia Kvaavik gave a talk entitled “Assessment of diet and feeding preference of mackerel (Scomber scombrus) offshore and inshore in Icelandic waters” which presented data from a visual dietary study of mackerel from 2013-2014. This presentation, along with further information on the conference can be found here

[04.2015] Teresa awarded grant

Congratulations to Teresa who was awarded a grant from the Eimskip University Fund (Háskólasjóðs H/f Eimskipafélags Íslands) to finish her PhD on the ecology of krill in Icelandic waters.

[02.2015] In service of our sea swimmers

Graphical output of our operational ocean model with improved spatial and temporal resolution is now availabe at http://www.sjospa.is/code09232. Information is available at the regional level, and in addition to the traditional hydrographic parameters the charts also include wave height, plankton density and weather conditions.

[12.2014] Ásthildur awarded grant

Congratulations to Ásthildur who was awarded an academic book grant from HÍ to support her MSc on the ectoparasitic copepod (Sebastes mentella)"

[11.2014] Heather successfully defends PhD

Congratulations to Heather who successfully defended her PhD entitled "Using biology to improve the value of the Icelandic lobster (Nephrops norvegicus) fishery". We wish you all the best for the future Heather!

[10.2014] Welcome to Sophia

Sophia Wassermann joins MARICE on a Fullbright scholarship for 9 months. She'll be working on elucidating the influence of temperature and other factors on the vertical distribution of capelin during their spawning migration and the interaction with and consequences for the cod stock. Pleased to have you with us Sophia!

[10.2014] NorMER annual meeting 2014

NorMER held its annual meeting in Copenhagen this year. Jed, Hlynur and Will all atended the meeting and presented updates on their work to the NorMER community and affiliates. And also participated in a Young Researchers workshop, a Climate Change workshop and an intensive time-series analysis course.

[09.2014] Viðar graduates!

Congratulations to Viðar who successfully defended his MSc thesis "Energy dynamics and recruitment of Icelandic capelin". Good luck with your further studies Viðar!

[09.2014] European Marine Biology Symposium 2014

Niall McGinty and Will Butler both attending the 49th European Marine Biology Symposium in St Petersburg. Niall presented a talk on "Biophysical coupling of Chl-a and environmental drivers using reconstructed satellite data fields: the potential for fisheries indices uses in higher latitude waters", and Will presented a talk entitled "Comparing rule-based and optimal behavioural strategies in larval fish models"

[08.2014] American Fisheries Society 2014

MARICE members Jed Macdonald and Fraser Cameron attended the 144th American Fisheries Society meeting. Fraser presented a poster entitled "Cod Lunacy, Hormonal Identification of spawning rhythms in Atlantic cod", whilst Jed gave a talk "Do environmental factors guide selection of overwintering locations in Atlantic herring when learning opportunities are few".

[04.2014] Anthony graduates!

Congratulations to Anthony who successfully defended his PhD thesis "Anthropogenic and environmental impacts on the abundance and distribution of commercial fish stocks of Lake Victoria". We wish you all the best in your new job and hope to see you again in the future!

[12.2013] Anthony publishes a paper on the distribution and exploitation of Nile perch

Congratulations to Anthony who has published a paper in the Journal of Great Lakes Research. The paper describes trends and pattens of exploitation of Nile perch in relation to periods of thermal stratification and mixing in Africa's largest lake; Lake Victoria. It illustrates how environmental parameters (dissolved oxygen and temperature) interact to  compress the lake habitat available to fish thus increasing fish vulnerability to pelagic set gears. The paper can be found here. 

[11.2013] Marsýn ehf selected as one of the best companies contributing innovative ideas to marine industry

Marsýn ehf was selected as one of the three best ideas contributing to marine industry at the Marine Conference Innovation Competition. Also receiving an innovation award from Islandsbanki for modelling wave heights around Iceland.

[11.2013] Jed receives award from Herring Research Fund

Congratulations to Jed MacDonald who received a grant from the Herring Research Fund for a project that has the main objective to forecast the distribution of herring based on ocean conditions from CODE.

[11.2013] New paper in Ocean Science

Congratulations to Kai and Guðrún, whose paper "The circulation of Icelandic waters - a modelling study" has been accepted by Ocean Science. The paper discusses the latest simulation of CODE, covering the period between 1992-2006, which revealed several new insights into the regional oceanography of Icelandic waters. One of the outcomes is a proposed new cirulation scheme for Icelandic waters. The work was done in collaboration with the Marine Research Institute and the Icelandic Meteorological Office. You can find the paper here.

[10.2013] NorMER annual meeting 2013

MARICE members Guðrún, Hlynur, Jed, Pam and Will attended the 2013 annual NorMER meeting in Reykjavik. The meeting bought together NorMER members and partners to present and discuss work, build collaborations and welcome new members.

The meeting was followed by a course in Fisheries Management taught by NorMER postdocs. This covered economic and biological aspects of fisheries management, the latter section taught by Pam Wood, as well as a field excursion to Grindavík.

[10.2013] Success at ICES!

MARICE members Hlynur Bárðarson and Bruce McAdam (alumni) won the prize for best student poster at ICES 2013. The poster was entitled Reassembling broken otoliths for population discrimination" and encouraged readers to test their visual acuity by trying to discern between whole and reassembled otoliths. Congratulations Hlynur and Bruce.

[09.2013] ICES comes to Iceland

The 2013 ICES Annual Science Conference is taking place in Harpa Conference Centre, Reykjavik. MARICE has numerous contributions, you can have a look here.

[09.2013] MARICE welcomes a new postdoc, Niall

Niall McGinty has joined MARICE for a postdoc. He will be developing 3D indices for primary and secondary production. The work will be carried out in collaboration with the Marine Research Institute, and is closely linked to the SEAMAN and Marsýn projects. Welcome Niall!

[08.2013] Kristín successfully defends MSc thesis at Lund University!

Congratulations to MARICE friend Kristín Ágústdóttir who successfully defended her Masters thesis "Fishing from space: mackerel fishing in Icelandic waters and correlation with satellite variables" at Lund University. The abstract can be found here, and the findings have also been reported at Fréttablaðið and Morgunblaðið.

[08.2013] Lovísa successfully defends MSc thesis!

Congratulations to MARICE member Lovísa Guðmundsdóttir who successfully defended her Masters thesis "Intra-stock diversity in egg specific gravity of Atlantic cod in Icelandic waters".

[06.2013] New postdoc position available at MARICE

A new postdoctoral position is available at MARICE in collaboration with the Marine Research Institute. The candidate will develop 3D indices of primary and secondary production in the mid-North Atlantic area using archived data, satellite information, 3D outputs on ocean conditions from CODE and modelling. The candidate will also collaborate with other scientists and students mapping and modelling the distribution of pelagic fish species in response to environmental stimuli. Please see the opportunities page, or Naturejobs page, for further information about the project and details on how to apply.

[04.2013] Kai Logemann et al have paper accepted for discussion at Ocean Science

MARICE members Kai Logemann and Guðrún Marteinsdóttir have a paper accepted for discussion in the journal Ocean Science.  The paper is entitled "The circulation of Icelandic waters - a modelling study" and can be found here.

[04.2013] Fraser Cameron begins field work in Stöðvarfjörður

Fraser is collecting blood samples and morphological data daily from cod kept in netpens outside Stöðvarfjörður in the east fjords. The aim of this work is to sample the population throughout the spawning period.

[04.2013] Sushi: the global catch

MARICE members Jed MacDonald and Will Butler collaborated with Loft hostel to bring an exclusive screening of Sushi: the global catch to Reykjavik. The documentary examines the tradition of sushi, its global expansion and the strain it has put on fish resources worldwide, particularly bluefin tuna. Jed and Will led a post-film discussion focusing on topics raised in the film, and increasing awareness at the consumer level.

[03.2013] Guðrún Marteinsdóttir has a three month sabbatical at SARDI, Adelaide

Guðrún is staying at the South Australian Aquatic Sciences Centre (division of SARDI) in Adelaide for three months. The sabbatical will be used, amongst other things, to explore and compare ideas and current research on the effects of hydrodynamic variability on behaviour and distribution of marine organisms. One of the aims is to assess the feasibility of constructing and implementing a coupled bio- and hydrodynamic Information System for the North Atlantic as well regions in the southern ocean.

[02.2013] Klara Jakobsdóttir successfully defends her PhD thesis

MARICE member Klara Björg Jakobsdóttir successfully defended her PhD thesis "The historical genetic variation in Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua L.) in Icelandic waters". Congratulations Klara!

[01.2013] Register now for the University of Iceland Graduate summer program in Marine & Fisheries Science

The University of Iceland will be running three graduate courses in May to July 2012: Data Analysis for Scientists using R, Fisheries Ecology - Management and Conservation of Resources in a Changing Ocean, and Studying Marine Mammals in the Wild.

The program aims to provide graduate students a one of a kind, immersive experience in fisheries ecology, marine resource management and marine conservation within the perspective of climate change. Courses and hands-on fieldwork are conducted at various locations in Iceland. All lectures are conducted in English by professors and researchers at the University of Iceland. Additional lectures are conducted by invited guest speakers internationally recognized for their outstanding achievements in their respective fields.

Courses vary in size from 4-8 ECTs and each lasts a period of 1-3 weeks. The courses consists of a mixture of formal lectures, discussion groups, field or laboratory exercises, and computer modeling.

Students must be registered at a university to be eligible for the courses. Information about the program can be found on the Marine Education in Iceland website, or in the student guidelines available here. Deadline for registration is 26th February 2013.

[12.2012] MARICE says goodbye to Elena

Elena Guijarro works at the Spanish Oceanography Institute in Vigo and has been a MARICE guest for the past three months. During this period, she's worked on the Spanish survey data collected annually in the tail of the Grand Bank of Newfoundland. Her project aimed to find links among the state of the cod stock in the area over the past 18 years and a number of environmental (bottom temperature variability, food availability) and anthropogenic (accidental catches, fishing disturbance) factors. Her work has been funded by International Campus of Excellence Campus do Mar. It's been great having Elena at MARICE the last three months and we hope to have further collaborations in the future.

[12.2012] New paper on cod spawning habitat and behaviour in Icelandic waters

Tim Grabowski (MARICE alumni) has published a paper in PLOS ONE entitled "Characterization of Atlantic Cod Spawning Habitat and Behavior in Icelandic Coastal Waters", Bruce McAdam (MARICE alumni) and Guðrún Marteinsdóttir are coauthors. Using DIDSON sonar and ROV, benthic habitat structures and cod spawning behaviour were observed and analysed. The findings suggest suggest that cod do not choose spawning locations indiscriminately despite the fact that it is a broadcast spawning fish with planktonic eggs. The paper can be found here.

[10.2012] Two new PhD students started at MARICE recently, Fraser Cameron and Jed Macdonald.

Fraser's project is entitled 'Cod lunacy: Assessing the entrainment and adaptive significance of environmental cycles on the timing of Atlantic cod reproduction'. Fraser will be looking to confirm recent observations of cyclical spawning behaviour in Atlantic cod, and assessing its adaptive significance and potential effects on cod mating systems. The work will be carried out in close collaboration with the University of Iceland's Department of Physiology, Hafró and Texas Tech University.

Jed's PhD is entitled 'Hydrodynamic Information Systems'. He will be developing a "Fish Finding Tool" which will link the physical environment (CODE) with life-history-behaviour  (LBE) to create catch predictions for target species. This project is a collaboration between MARICE and Hafró.

Welcome Fraser and Jed!

[10.2012] Three MARICE members attend the 2013 NorMER annual meeting in Helsinki

Pamela Wood, Hlynur Bárðarson and William Butler attended the 2012 annual NorMER meeting in Helsinki, a three day bio-economics course at the University of Helsinki and a two day young-researchers workshop at Lammi Biological station.

The three day bio-economics course covered biomass and structured models, demand, distribution and regime shifts in bioeconomics.

The two day annual NorMER event bought together NorMER members and partners, providing the opportunity to present  and discuss work with the NorMER community, as well as meeting the new students.

For the young researchers workshop, NorMER PhD students and postdocs travelled to Lammi Biological station to work on a collective project entitled Tasty Haystack.

MARICE member Pam Wood has begun a 9 month placement in Seattle. She will be working with Dr. Andre Punt at the University of Washington and Dr. Daniel Holland at the Pacific Northwest Science Center on the project "Bottom-up controls in fisheries management and adaptation to climate change".

[07.2012] MARICE says goodbye to postdoc Bruce McAdam

After 4 years working in MARICE, postdoc Bruce McAdam has departed and taken up a lecturer position at the University of Stirling's Institute of Aquaculture. He will be working as an ecological/environmental modeller in the Sustainable Aquaculture Research Group. We wish Bruce the best of luck and look forward to seeing him in the future.

[02.2010] MARICE Seminar in Aberdeen, Scotland

[01.2010] Intensive Graduate Program in Marine and Fisheries Sciences

For the second year, the University of Iceland will offer a series of intensive graduate level courses in Marine and Fisheries Sciences. The program will take place during spring and summer of 2010 and will be focused on providing graduate students with a one of a kind, immersive experience in fisheries ecology, marine resource management and marine conservation within the perspective of climate change. Please see the ‘Marine Education in Iceland’ webpage for more details.

[04.2009] MARICE develops a new approach for studying cod behaviour 

Tim Grabowski and Bruce McAdam have completed the second year of a study of cod spawning behaviour in Kollafjordur. Tim and Bruce designed a telemetry set-up which they deployed instead of the high-resolution acoustic telemetry system used last year. Once refined, this new system should be able to yield comparable results over a larger area, without the need for a boat to be anchored on site for the duration of the study. This spring they tagged 18 adult cod and deployed an array of 19 Vemco VR2W hydrophones covering 2.0 km². This area was also intensively surveyed using the new split-beam echosounder recently acquired by MARICE. Initial results suggest that cod spend most of their time over rocky substrates associated with a sloping bottom or other structures. Males and females were found to segregate not only by depth, but also in terms of location across the array.       

[04.2009] MARICE welcomes a new undergraduate researcher

Corrina Schendel, an undergraduate from Germany finishing her coursework at the University of Iceland, is conducting research this summer with Tim Grabowski and Gudrun Marteinsdóttir. Corrina is conducting growth and selection studies of larval and juvenile cod using the facilities at the research station in Grindavik.                

[02.2009] MARICE participation in 'Ocean and Marine Biota in Iceland' symposium

Lísa Anne Libungan, Tim Grabowski, Heidi Pardoe, Kai Logemann, Bruce McAdam and Jónas Páll Jónasson presented their research at the Marine Research Institute's 'Ocean and Marine Biota in Iceland' symposium, 20th-21st February 2009. The symposium was intended to shed light on the current knowledge of the geology of the seabed, physical and chemical oceanography and biology of marine organisms in Icelandic waters. A keynote talk 'Understanding climate driven changes in marine biodiversity and ecosystems: the value of longterm studies' was given by Prof. Stephen J. Hawkins, Head of the College of Natural Sciences at Bangor University, UK. 

[01.2009] Intensive Graduate Program in Marine and Fisheries Sciences

The University of Iceland will offer a series of intensive graduate level courses in Marine and Fisheries Sciences during spring and summer of 2009. The program is focused on providing graduate students a one of a kind, immersive experience in fisheries ecology, marine resource management and marine conservation within the perspective of climate change. Please see the ‘Marine Education in Iceland’ webpage for more details.

[10.2008] MARICE presents at the 5^th World Fisheries Congress

Jónas Páll Jónasson, Tim Grabowski and Heidi Pardoe successfully presented their research to an international audience at the 5^th World Fisheries Congress in Yokohama, Japan, in October 2008. Guðrún Marteinsdóttir delivered her inspiring congress plenary talk to a large audience. The associated paper, published in the congress memorial book ‘Fisheries for Global Welfare and Environment’, can be found here. All of the talks were well received by the audiences and provoked some interesting discussions. Congratulations to all the speakers!       

[10.2008] Two MARICE MSc Theses Defended

Congratulations to MARICE members Erna Karen Óskarsdóttir and Lilja Stefansdóttir for successful completion and defense of their MSc theses. The title of Erna’s thesis was ‘Distribution and biological parameters of chimaera species in Icelandic waters’, while Lilja’s was ‘Groundfish species diversity and assemblage structure in Icelandic waters during 1996-2007’.

[08.2008] MARICE member presents at American Fisheries Society Annual Meeting