12-13 November 2024 – Caroline, Anne Berit, Reidun, Alessandro and Howard participated in the KNOWSANDEEL 3.0 kickoff meeting! The team is contributing to the project work package about larval dispersal mechanisms and its modelling.
The hashtag#KnowSandeel project led by the Institute of Marine Research (IMR), Norway and funded by Norges forskningsråd (The Research Council of Norway) has officially started!
Lesser sandeel (Ammodytes marinus) is a keystone species of the North Sea, and it constitutes an essential link between low trophic zooplankton and predators that are higher up in the food web such as larger fish, sea birds like Atlantic puffins and kittiwakes and sea mammals. Therefore, sandeel has a key ecological function in the North Sea basin and its population has to be safeguarded.
Sandeel has supported the largest single-species fishery in the North Sea for decades, but recent surveys revealed that its stock biomass has declined dramatically.
Sandeel lives buried in sand of medium to coarse grain sizes, and forms massive schools to feed up in the water column. Because of sandeel’s association with the sea bed, it cannot move to other areas when a disturbance is introduced in the environment. Therefore, this species is particularly vulnerable to the habitat modifications caused by offshore industrial activities (hashtag#oilandgas, hashtag#offshorewind, hashtag#shipping).
The KnowSandeel project will provide essential ecological knowledge on sandeel by taking a life history approach. The project is led by Elin Sørhus and brings marine scientists, energy industry partners and public agencies to co-create knowledge that will allow for better preservation of this key species.
We will use cutting-edge experimental methods to assess sandeel’s behavior, underwater active and passive acoustics, biophysical models of larval dispersal and microchemistry to tackle fundamental questions such as:
– What are the dispersal mechanisms of sandeel?
– Is sandeel affected by exposure to oil?
– Is sandeel affected by offshore wind farms?
– Can we simulate and forecast sandeel recruitment?
Caroline Durif Howard Browman Florian Berg Prescilla PERRICHON Espen Johnsen Frode Bendiksen Vikebo Reidun Bjelland Anne Berit Skiftesvik Institute of Marine Research (IMR), Norway Norwegian Meteorological Institute | Meteorologisk institutt Equinor Aker BP ASA Offshore Norge OKEA ASA Repsol OMV Sval Energi DNO ASA Wintershall Dea
