News & announcements

Humpback whales in Hafnarfjordur harbour have delighted both the staff of Marine and Freshwater Research Institute (MFRI) and people passing by at the harbour, as the view has often been on a par with the best whale watching. But watching the whales has not been enough for the MFRI staff, who have pondered the question of why the whales would stay in these areas. And now the answer is clear as derived from research applying acoustic methods and biological sampling. The short answer is that humpbacks have been chasing schools of small herring and sprat but also saith.

An international cooperation in microplastic research was recently launched. The project´s objective is to improve research infrastructure and strengthen cooperation between scientists in the field of environmental microplastic research.

A new study, published recently in the research journal Frontiers in Marine Science, reveals that Bomb radiocarbon determines absolute age of adult fin whales, and validates use of earplug growth bands for age determination.

The seminar will examine the broad and global implications of plastic pollution on marine fauna, with a specific focus on investigating the occurrence and magnitude of plastic pollution in the Sub-Arctic ecosystem. This examination will centre around a sentinel organism, the fin whale (Balaenoptera physalus), during its summering period in the waters off western Iceland.

"A new research method utilizes ancient DNA preserved in ocean sediments to provide reliable information of sea ice occurrence in the Arctic," says Sara Harðardóttir a researcher at the Marine and Freshwater Research Institute and first author on a research article published in the Nature portfolio journal Communications Earth and Environment this week, about the newly developed method.

The Marine and Freshwater Research Institute (MFRI) will not change the previous advice of no capelin fishing this season after last week's measurements. The reason for this is that only low abundance of capelin was observed and there is a strong possibility that capelin is still under the sea ice northwest of Iceland.

An open online presentation on killer whales takes place today at 16.30. The title of the presentation ise The Vestmannaeyjar Research Centre: research on killer whales and other cetaceans.

Warsha Singh, an ecologist at the Marine and Freshwater Research Institute’s Pelagic division in Iceland, has been selected to participate at the UNESCO International Day of Women in Multilateralism 2024. The forum takes place 25 January at the UNESCO Headquarters in Paris, France.

The Marine and Freshwater Research Institute in Iceland has published a new report that reveals a standardized analysis of the diet of 36 demersal fish species inhabiting the seas around Iceland, comprising 15 cartilaginous species and 21 species of bony fish. The results provide information on the dependency of various demersal fish species on certain food groups, and based on their importance, predatory fish can be classified into several groups. Cod, the most abundant demersal fish of the continental shelf, has a varied diet, and eats what is available at any given time, mostly capelin, other fish, and various crustaceans.

The Marine and Freshwater Research Institute´s (MFRI) new research vessel will be launched to sea today, January 12th, in Vigo, Spain. The vessel will then be given the name Thorunn Thordardottir in a formal launching ceremony. The name honours the first Icelandic woman who dedicated her life to marine research and a great pioneer in phytoplankton research in the ocean surrounding Iceland.