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Agenda voor de toekomst - Morfologie Mesoschaal: deelrapport 14. Bodemtransport nabij de Platen van Ossenisse op basis van een analyse van bodemvormen
Get PDFActualisatie van de initiële beoordeling voor de Belgische mariene wateren. Kaderrichtlijn Mariene Strategie – Art 8 lid 1a & 1b: België 2018-2024
Get PDFActualisation de l’évaluation initiale pour les eaux marines belges. Directive-cadre Stratégie pour le milieu marin – Art 9 & 10: Belgique 2018-2024
Get PDFActualisation de l’analyse économique et sociale de l’utilisation des eaux marines belges et du coût de la degradation du milieu marin. Directive-cadre stratégie pour le milieu marin – Art 8.1.c. Belgique 2018-2024
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Beached bachelors: an extensive study on the largest recorded sperm whale <i>Physeter macrocephalus</i> mortality event in the North Sea
Get PDFBetween the 8th January and the 25th February 2016, the largest sperm whale Physeter macrocephalus mortality event ever recorded in the North Sea occurred with 30 sperm whales stranding in five countries within six weeks. All sperm whales were immature males. Groups were stratified by size, with the smaller animals stranding in the Netherlands, and the largest in England. The majority (n = 27) of the stranded animals were necropsied and/or sampled, allowing for an international and comprehensive investigation into this mortality event. The animals were in fair to good nutritional condition and, aside from the pathologies caused by stranding, did not exhibit significant evidence of disease or trauma. Infectious agents were found, including various parasite species, several bacterial and fungal pathogens and a novel alphaherpesvirus. In nine of the sperm whales a variety of marine litter was found. However, none of these findings were considered to have been the primary cause of the stranding event. Potential anthropogenic and environmental factors that may have caused the sperm whales to enter the North Sea were assessed. Once sperm whales enter the North Sea and head south, the water becomes progressively shallower (<40 m), making this region a global hotspot for sperm whale strandings. We conclude that the reasons for sperm whales to enter the southern North Sea are the result of complex interactions of extrinsic environmental factors. As such, these large mortality events seldom have a single ultimate cause and it is only through multidisciplinary, collaborative approaches that potentially multifactorial large-scale stranding events can be effectively investigated
First European record of the invasive barnacle <i>Balanus glandula</i> Darwin, 1854
Get PDFDuring recent surveys of hard substrata biofouling communities in Belgian marine waters we discovered specimens of the invasive barnacle Balanus glandula. This species is new to the European marine fauna. The species was first encountered in July 2015 in a biofouling community on RV Belgica. In October 2016, the species proved to be common on navigational buoys in Belgian coastal waters and after a dedicated search we discovered the species on many groynes all along the Belgian coast and in the harbour of Zeebrugge. We identified the species both morphologically and genetically. We found two generations indicating that B. glandula had settled in 2015 (possibly the first year of its presence) and also in 2016. We provide identification characters to distinguish B. glandula from other, similar looking, Western European intertidal barnacles. The distribution of B. glandula was originally limited to the Pacific coast of North America. In the past half century B. glandula successfully invaded subsequently the coasts of Argentina, Japan and South Africa. Given its invasion history elsewhere, we forecast that B. glandula is on the brink of invading other European shores