News & announcements

The Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Marine and Freshwater Research Institute (MFRI) and UNESCO‘s Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) will host an open seminar on the occasion of the publication of the State of the Ocean Report 2024. The seminar will be held on Monday, June 3 at 10:00-11:15 in MFRI‘s building at Fornubúðir 5 Hafnarfjörður and will be held in English.

A recent review article titled " Abandoned, lost, and Otherwise Discarded Fishing Gear in World’s Inland Fisheries" was published in the article "Reviews in Fishery Biology and Fisheries." This comprehensive review delves into the issue of fishing gear left in freshwater systems worldwide, primarily associated with commercial and recreational fishing activities.

The Icelandic Seal Centre symposium, arranged in collaboration with Marine and Freshwater and Research Institute (MFRI) will be held for the third time at the Icelandic Seal Centre, Hvammstangi Friday the 17th of May. Several of the lectures about projects carried out by and/or in collaboration with MFRI, including a general overview of seal research in Iceland, as well as several student projects supervised by MFRI marine mammal specialist Sandra Granquist who works at Marine and Freshwater and Research Institute (MFRI). The symposium is free of charge and open to everyone.

In response to the pressing challenges posed by human activities and climate change on marine ecosystems, BioProtect, a newly-funded EU project, has been officially launched. Coordinated by MATIS in Iceland, in cooperation with Marine and Freshwater Research Institure, the 8 million EUR bring together 18 partners from 8 countries.

A graduation ceremony for GRÓ Fisheries Training Programme’s 25th cohort of fellows will be held Wednesday 15 May. The ceremony will take place at the Marine and Freshwater Research Institute, Fornubúðum 5 Hafnarfirði and starts at 15:10. Concurrently, a poster exhibition of the final projects of the graduating fellows will be on display at the same location.

A new study, published in Cell Reports Sustainability, shows the persistence of long-standing biases in research to conserve biodiversity. These biases remain and will ultimately lead to uneven loss of biodiversity as understudied groups decline and disappear - some species before they are even identified and described.

For the first time, an individual humpback that was photographed in the Cape Verde Islands breeding ground off the coast of Africa has been photographed in the west Greenland feeding ground.

New Measurements Shed Light on a Familiar Shipwreck: About 80 nautical miles west of Snæfellsnes, at a depth of approximately 400 meters beneath the ocean's surface, rests a shipwreck. Its hull spans 155 meters in length and 20 meters in width, with what appears to be the bow rising 13 meters from the seabed, facing west. This intriguing discovery lies adjacent to the far edge of an iceberg ploughmark, stretching 330 meters in length and 12 meters deep.

The thirteenth multibeam survey of the Marine and Freshwater Research Institute’s to map the seabed around Iceland in ongoing. Seabed Mapping project began 9 April, departing from the Westman islands en route to the west of the Reykjanes Ridge, the survey covered Reykjanesgrunn, Faxabanki, and Jökuldjúp. Despite challenging conditions, including strong north-northwest winds, the team managed to obtain satisfactory depth measurements of the seabed, covering an area of approximately 5996 km2 by the time of this report.

Theresa Henke, a PhD student, will introduce the main findings of her research on the “Establishment of European flounder (Platichthys flesus) in Icelandic waters”.