News & announcements

MFRI hosted recently a course on sampling and identifying chironomid pupal skins (insects). As 20 freshwater scientists, from Iceland, sat for 4 days, learning how to identify chironomid pupal skins, they managed to find 20 new species that previously had not been documented in Iceland.

The Kroyer’s lantern fish (Notoscopelus kroyeri) is one of the most common species of mesopelagic fish around Iceland, but it has been little studied so far. Gaining knowledge of the species' biology is a prerequisite for its sustainable exploitation in the future.

The pelagic fishing vessels Aðalsteinn Jónsson and Polar Ammassak collaborated with the Marine and Freshwater Research Institute in capelin surveys last week. The aim was to determine whether more capelin had entered the northwestern waters since the previous survey in early February. The amount of capelin measured this time was slightly lower than in the previous survey, indicating that no new capelin had entered the area. Therefore, MFRI previous fishing advice of 8 589 tons of capelin for the current fishing season remains unchanged. Most of the capelin was found on the banks off Húnaflói and Skagafjörður (Figure 1). The Marine Research Institute does not plan any further capelin surveys this winter.

A new and exciting technology was tested in relation to capelin measurements In the latest capelin survey of MFRI´s research vessel Árni Friðriksson. The device is called the FishScanner.

A larger quantity of capelin was measured off the northwest coast of Iceland in February than in January, in the research survey of Marine and Freshwater Research Institute. That is the main reason for the updated advice to 8589 tonnes.

Marine and Freshwater Research Institue is searching for a Postdoctoral Researcher for the Horizon EU Mission Ocean and Waters Project – BioProtect.

The preliminary results of the measurements indicate a slightly lower estimate of the fishable biomass than in the week before. It is therefore clear that the results will lead to an unchanged advice of no capelin fishing for the fishing season 2024/25.

The measurements of adult capelin that makes up the fishing stock for the season, amount to only about two-thirds of what was measured in September 2024. Hence, with the caveat that measurements are still ongoing off the west coast, it is foreseen that the results of the ongoing measurements will not lead to changes in the current fishing advice of zero catch.

The Marine and Freshwater Research Institute (MFRI) is proud to announce its significant contribution to cutting-edge research on validating models of pelagic social-ecological systems.

A new mollusc species was recently discovered in the ocean around Iceland. Such discoveries are rare and in this case the result of a lot of hard work. The new species has been named after former Marine and Freshwater Research Institute´s (MFRI) employee Jónbjörn Pálsson and is called Buccinum palssoni Fraussen, Delongueville & Scaillet, 2024.