Fram Centre

A tale of a local fjord – investigating a marine system in our backyard

A cold wind gust hits our small aluminium boat, and we crash into another rolling wave. Spray splashes up but, for once, the cold, salty drops are welcome. Everyone in the fieldwork team is sweaty and breathless but very much alive. That was a close call, but we made it!
November 14, 2019

Passive sampling detects salmon louse pesticides and hydrogen sulphide: 50 shades of grey

If you want to get Norwegians talking, just ask for their opinions on aquaculture. Use of pesticides to combat salmon lice in fish farms is a hotly debated topic all around Norway. But how much pesticide is actually spread in the environment? To find out, we’ve developed a new measurement strategy.
October 08, 2019

Kongsfjorden sea ice development observed from ground, air and space

Sea ice covers parts of fjords in Svalbard for a limited time during winter and spring. The ice plays important roles for climate processes, such as heat and radiation fluxes between atmosphere and fjord water, and for the fjord’s ecosystem. Through the years, many studies have focused on Kongsfjorden.
September 30, 2019

Warm water, fresh water, wind and tides – ice or no ice around Svalbard?

September onboard the research vessel Lance north of Svalbard. Kristen, our mooring engineer, is happy. There is no sea ice to be seen anywhere – ideal conditions to find the instruments we left here two years ago attached to a rope, anchored to the seafloor, and held upright under water by several buoys.
September 12, 2019

Where seals dare

Glacier fronts along Svalbard’s coast are dangerous places. Huge blocks of ice detach and crash into the ocean below, making data collection all but impossible. Now, researchers have found a solution: attaching sensors to ringed seals that dare to go where humans cannot. Seals make brave research assistants!
September 05, 2019

Confronting one of our greatest challenges – plastic waste in nature

The oceans are filling with plastic. The water in some great Asian rivers is no longer visible below the flowing mass of trash. A rare Cuvier’s beaked whale stranded off the coast of Hordaland with its stomach full of plastic. Plastic waste is a formidable problem – with an unexpected possible solution.
June 03, 2019

Monitoring whales with drones

Two researchers hunker by a fjord, oblivious to the magical blue of the January twilight. All their attention is focused on an unmanned aerial vehicle – a UAV. Gloveless despite the bitter cold, they manipulate the joystick and buttons on the remote control with numb fingers, preparing the drone for take-off.
May 31, 2019

Polar cod early life stages up against a changing Arctic

Transparent eggs floating just beneath the ocean’s surface signal the beginning of life for one of the Arctic’s most abundant pelagic fish: polar cod. Throughout the Arctic, these small fish form the basis of many seabirds, seal, and whale diets. How will the millions of eggs and larvae handle future stressors?
May 03, 2019

Assessing the consequences of oil spills on commercial fish

The fisheries industry regularly harvests a share of managed commercial fish stocks. Fram Centre researchers examined the impact of oil spills on Norway’s main commercial fisheries, the Northeast Arctic cod, using advanced simulation technology.
April 23, 2019

Roundness of mineral particles in subsea tailings from copper mining

Copper mines obviously yield copper, but they also produce waste material – tailings – which must be disposed of somehow. In Norway, tailings have often been dumped in fjords as an alternative to disposal on land. The environmental impact of this practice over time is not known.
April 11, 2019

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