Partner 7: Havforskningsinstituttet (IMR)
The organization: The Institute of Marine Research (IMR) has a staff of almost 700 and is among the largest centre of marine science in Europe. Our main task is to provide advice to Norwegian authorities on aquaculture and the ecosystems of the Barents Sea, the Norwegian Sea, the North Sea and the Norwegian coastal zone. As a consequence, approximately fifty percent of our activities are financed by the Ministry of Fisheries and Coastal Affairs. IMR's headquarters are in Bergen, but work centred on northern latitudes is also carried out in Tromsø. We also maintain research stations in Matre, Austevoll and Flødevigen and a number of ‘state of the art’ research vessels, which are at sea for a total of 1600 days a year. The aim of research and management advice provided by IMR is to ensure that the marine resources are harvested in a sustainable way. The Institute has long time series on several commercially exploited species.
Contribution to the project: IMR will contribute with their extensive knowledge and modelling in the Barents Sea and WP1-4. They will update and use the Gadget modelling framework to study ecosystem responses to forage fishery and the influence of marine mammals.
The scientific team:
Richard D.M. Nash. Principal scientist. He will co-ordinate the IMR research team and the work in WP1, task 3. He is a well respected, active researcher on recruitment processes in fish and has worked on a range of species in a number of different oceans. He has recently partaken in a number of EU projects and is and has been a WP leader.
Bjarte Bogstad: Researcher at IMR. He is an internationally recognized researcher worrking with stock assessment, harvesting strategies and multispecies modeling, and his involvement will be developing the IMR Gadget multi-species model for the Barents Sea. He will co-ordinate the Barents Sea case study. He is Co-Chair of the ICES WG on Multispecies Assessment Methods.
Daniel Howell: Researcher at IMR. He works very closely with Bogstad and his fields of interests centre around age-length structured fisheries modelling. His involvement in this project will be with developing the IMR multi-species Gadget model in the Barents Sea for WPs 1-3 and the case study.
Geir Huse: Senior scientist at IMR and Programme leader for the research programme Ecosystem and Stock Dynamics. His role in the project will be on herring ecology relevant to WP1. He is an international expert on ecological modelling, spatial ecology, behaviour, population dynamics, zooplankton and fish, especially pelagic species.
Ulf Lindstrøm: Researcher at IMR, based in Tromsø. His research is in sea mammal-fishery interactions, including the implementation of minke whales in Gadget and incorporating predation by harp seals and minke whales in to fish stock assessment in WPs 1-3.
Aril Slotte: Principal scientist at IMR, head of the Pelagic Division. He is a world expert on herring biology/ecology, specialising in Norwegian Spring Spawning herring and contribute to WP1.
References:
Bogetveit, F. R., Slotte, A. & Johannessen, A. 2007. The ability of gadoids to take advantage of a short-term burst in the availability of forage fish – The example of spawning aggregation in Barents Sea capelin. J. Fish Biol. 72: 1427-1449.
Huse, G., & Ellingsen, I.H. 2008. Capelin migrations and climate change - a modelling analysis. Clim Change 87:177-191
Lindstrøm, U., Smout, S., Howell, D. & Bogstad, B. 2008. Modelling multispecies interactions in the Barents Sea ecosystem with special emphasis on minke whales, cod, herring and capelin. Deep Sea Res. Part II: Top. St. Oceanogr.
Nash, R.D.M., Dickey-Collas, M. & Kell, L.T. 2009. Stock and recruitment in North Sea herring (Clupea harengus); compensation and depensation in the population dynamics. Fish. Res. 95: 88-9788-97.
Varpe, Ø., Fiksen, Ø. & Slotte, A. 2005. Meta-ecosystems and biological energy transport from ocean to coast: the ecological importance of herring migration. Oecologia 146: 443-451.