Employees at the Institute of Marine Research in Bergen who are members of two worker unions (NTL and Stafo) are presently on strike. One of the consequences is that our switchboard is closed. Most scientists, however, are working. For contact, please check alphabetical list of employees, or call director of communication Kari Østervold Toft on +47 55 23 85 38 (phone) or +47 913 80 629 (cellphone).      

Cruise report: The first MAREANO cruise this year has been successfully finished after a one month survey off Vesterålen/Nordland VI and off North-Trøndelag and Møre. The last 2-3 days were used for video filming in the northern part of the Storegga where both depth and fauna communities varied. In deep water the communities were affected by sub-zero temperatures and a thousands of years old underwater slide.

Three unknown coral reefs are registered outside Frohavet in Trøndelag (mid-Norway) as part of the survey conducted by the MAREANO programme. One of the coral reefs are probably 200-250 meter long, while the other two seems to be a few tens of meters in extent.

MAREANO's spring-cruise with R/V G.O. Sars has now been going on for about one week. The purpose of this first part of the cruise is to complete the mapping of habitats, benthic fauna and pollutants in the Nordland VI area off Lofoten, while in the second part video-filming will take place in the Storegga area and an area between Kristiansund and Halten.