To help meet the EU's goal of climate neutrality by 2050, the European Commission today presents the EU Strategy on Offshore Renewable Energy. The Strategy proposes to increase Europe's offshore wind capacity from its current level of 12 GW to at least 60 GW by 2030 and to 300 GW by 2050. The Commission aims to complement this with 40 GW of ocean energy and other emerging technologies such as floating wind and solar by 2050.
On March 3, 2021 VLIZ organizes a digital VLIZ Marine Science Day. Abstracts for an online presentation or digital poster (video) presentation can be submitted before December 16.
The European Commission is holding a public consultation until 7 December on ways to make the Blue Economy more sustainable within the framework of the EU Green Deal.
The Interreg project Sustainable And Resilient Coastal Cities (SARCC) organizes a panel discussion on 18 November on how to build a resilient coast by working together with nature.
A brand new interactive timeline provides a convenient overview of the main strategies, processes and laws that have shaped ocean policy since the beginning of this century.
Ostend (2020.08.19) – Anno 2010, 0.17% of the global ocean surface layer is impacted by microplastic pollution, posing a threat to the marine ecosystem. Under the worst case scenario, this fraction will increase to 1.62% of the ocean surface layer by 2100, an area as big as ten times the size of France. In particular, the Mediterranean Sea and the Yellow Sea, two enclosed basins facing high human pressure, are under serious threat. In the worst case, by 2100, 69% of the water surface of the Mediterranean and 54% of the water surface of the Yellow Sea will show unfavourable conditions for marine life due to the pollution with microplastics.
Until 4 October researchers can apply for the latest transnational call of ASSEMBLE Plus. Through this program, researchers can make use of marine research infrastructure from more than 30 international research institutes for a maximum of 30 days.
With the latest edition of the European Atlas of the Seas, citizens across Europe now have access to stunning sea charts and interactive ocean information in their own language, making the Atlas an even more accessible and useful educational tool. From now on, visitors can navigate the Atlas in the 24 official languages of the European Union and explore a wide range of popular marine topics such as tourism, litter, the environment, energy, aquaculture and many more.
The Think Tank North Sea, a bottom-up driven think tank that develops thematic visions for the Belgian North Sea with a time horizon of 2050, presents two working group reports after a first vision development cycle. At the same time members of the quadruple helix (policy, private, research and interested public) are invited to commit themselves to a new theme.
The Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ) recently launched the renewed ScheldeMonitor portal. On this platform you will find a wide range of data, visualizations, maps and literature on all kinds of Scheldt-related themes. The new portal now also offers many possibilities for non-experts with an interest in the Scheldt.
Within the Wier en Wind project, a consortium of Belgian and Dutch partners is striving to set up the largest and furthest offshore seaweed farm in the world. The farm will be built on land as of September, after which it will be installed between the wind turbines of the Norther Wind Farm in October.
The Environment Department of the Government of Flanders, together with the team of Vlaamse Bouwmeester and various government agencies, has brought together the various climate and environmental factors that play a role at the coast in a handy guide. The booklet makes a plea not to take a fragmentary approach to the climate challenges on our coast, but to continue to look for solutions in an integrated way.
The SUMES project (September 2020-August 2023) aims to develop a model to assess the impact of man-induced changes on the ecosystem, its structure (e.g. biodiversity) and function (e.g. food chains, biogeochemistry), its capacity to deliver goods and services to marine ecosystems (e.g. carbon sequestration) and the resulting impacts. The aim is to use this insight to explore how economic activities at sea can be made more sustainable, also a framework will be developed to support the decision-making process.
The amount of plastic in rivers and the ocean is increasing all the time. Within the frame of the PLUXIN project, Flemish scientists, entrepreneurs and The Blue Cluster are joining forces to map the plastics transported to the sea via ports and rivers, using innovative and automatic detection methods. The ultimate goal is to provide solutions and to set up pioneering commercial initiatives in Flanders in the plastic sanitation of water and sediments.
A first analysis shows that the corona-related lockdown (18 March to 3 May 2020) reduced direct expenditure by Belgian recreational sea fishers by almost 0.6 million euros. The average general well-being experienced a slight decrease while the (temporary) unemployment among the active part of this community increased from 6 to 32%. The loss in catch volume amounted to almost 18 tonnes, with the largest decline for cod, whiting and dab.
Within the BlueBio ERA-Net COFUND funding programme, a call has been launched for pre-proposals aimed at the supply systems in the Blue Bioeconomy. Candidate projects within this call should focus on identifying new and improving existing ways to market natural products and services and finding new ways to create value in the Blue Bioeconomy. Submitting pre-proposal is possible until 14 September 2020.
The marine environment offers a wide variety of organisms. All of them can contain potentially interesting bioactive compounds. Under the motto “who does not seek, does not find”, the PROBIO project aims to intensively screen a selection of marine organisms from Belgian waters for potentially interesting bioactive molecules. The research consortium aims to provide an essential knowledge base for commercial applications in various sectors.
The recently launched Horizon 2020 project UNITED is investigating how the scarce space at sea can be used by multiple users. For five existing demonstration pilots in three European seas, the technical, regulatory, economic, social and environmental requirements and impacts are being investigated if multiple commercial activities want to develop there together. An interactive webinar on 3 June (12:00-14:00) will introduce you to the project and the pilot sites.
In its eighth Policy Brief, the European Marine Board, together with the EU-funded SOPHIE project (Seas, Oceans and Public Health in Europe), provides an overview of the policy challenges in striving to achieve a balance between ocean and human health, and of the cooperation and research needed to meet these challenges.
Globally, the economic consequences of the current corona crisis are an integral part of daily news reports. Just as the corona crisis is having a major impact on all kinds of land and airborne sectors, it is also having an impact on the 'blue economy', which globally accounts for 2.5 trillion dollars on an annual basis (Hoegh-Guldberg et al. 2015). In Flanders, the Blue Economy accounts for a turnover of 48.36 billion euros and employs 153,805 FTEs (study IDEA consult 2019 commissioned by De Blauwe Cluster).
