News

Bio-prospecting and benthic mapping were highlighted during the conference “On the exploration and utilizing the resources of the sea” that was arranged in historical environments in Lisbon on Wednesday Dec 14. MAREANO was among the invited speakers.

Modern environmental state and its recent changes can be assessed by studying successions of fine-grained sediments accumulating in shelf basins experiencing very weak or no current. Low current in such basins facilitates continuous deposition, a few millimeters per year, of mud and organic remains that are the main carriers of contamination in the marine environment.

The sea spider Cilunculus battenae was recently recorded in the Norwegian Economic Zone (NEZ) for the first time, when bottom samples from the MAREANO cruises from 2007-2009 were analysed. So far 21 different species have been found in the samples. Two species have previously been observed in the NEZ a few times.

The strong currents off the coast of Finnmark are renowned by local seafarers, and our latest observations North of Nordkynnhalvøya are shedding light on what affect these currents are having on the seabed.

During a 500 km long transit from Troms III to Nordland VI the MAREANO project has acquired new data from the upper sediment units. We applied Topas, a kind of strong echosounder sending signals at regular intervals into the seafloor.

MAREANO has completed the mapping at Troms III outside of Arnøya, located in Lopphavet in Troms, and is now steaming southwards to Nordland VI, at the southern tip of Lofoten.

In the afternoon, the 17. September, the scientific vessel G.O. Sars headed north from Tromsø. The ocean was calm, the wind was warm and the sunset colored the sky. The MAREANO autumn survey had started. We reached our destination north west of the island “Sørøya”, about 71° north, by midnight.

This summer’s MAREANO cruise with research vessel “G.O. Sars” ends today in Tromsø, with no time lost due to bad weather or equipment problems we have been very lucky, and have completed all the planned work, and a few extras. The Troms III area offshore north Troms (north Norway) has been the focus of the second leg of the cruise, continuing the good work begun in the first leg. Following video surveys over several previously undocumented coral reefs during the first leg, right at the end of the second leg we were lucky enough to encounter yet another reef, around 20 km north of Vannøya.

During the summer cruise of 2010, MAREANO completed mapping of a 150 km long and 16 km wide transect on the Nordkappbanken. During three days, R/V "G.O. Sars" made video recordings of the seabed at a total of 18 stations, and the sea bed was sampled with different types of equipment at four stations. Water depth in the mapped area ranges from 230 m to 315 m.

A quick note from all on board the Norwegian research vessel ‘G.O. Sars’. We are making good progress with the first of two MAREANO cruises to be undertaken this year, and are now mid-way through the second and final leg of this research cruise.

Mapping the distribution of seabed nature types is an important component of MAREANO. Nature types follow, and contribute to the development of the Norwegian Nature Types classification scheme at the nature-system level.

R/V G.O. Sars left Tromsø harbour 18 September with steady course heading for the “Eggakanten”, the continental shelf break northwest off the Norwegian mainland, approximately half-way to the Bear Island. The mission was to map the seabed as part of the Norwegian mapping programme MAREANO. The cruise is divided in two legs; the first, which we report from here, was undertaken between 18 and 30 September and the second leg which runs from 30 September until 11 October. Onboard were 14 scientists and technicians within the fields of marine taxonomy, geology and chemistry.

In the beginning of August (2009) the Norwegian Journal of Geology published a thematic issue with 15 new articles mainly based on results from MAREANO.

Scientists from the Institute of Marine Research (IMR) and the Geological Survey of Norway (NGU) have started the April 2009 MAREANO cruise (2009105) aboard the "G.O. Sars". The scientific crew includes Norwegians, French, Danish, Canadian, German, Faroese and Finnish. The northernmost study area is located on the continental shelf, approximately 195 nm north of the Norway coast. The 9000 km2 large study area, covered by the cruise, includes depths ranging from 300 to 1000 meters, and will be mapped for benthic fauna, bottom types and environmental status.