Commercial harvesting of snow crab (<i>Chionoecetes opilio</i>) in the Barents Sea started in 2012 by Norwegian fishing vessels. This new fishery has significant bait requirements, representing an emerging conservation challenge. In this study, we evaluate the performance of five alternative (natural) baits manufactured from the waste stream of existing and sustainably managed harp seal (<i>Pagophilus ...

In northern Fennoscandian lakes, monophylogenetic lineages of postglacial fishes are radiating into several adaptive forms, but the speciation process is still at an incipient stage. The speciation process has received increased attention over the years, but the underlying mechanisms and drivers are still debated and poorly understood. European whitefish (<i>Coregonus lavaretus</i> [L.]) is the most ...

Rapporten beskriver hendelsesforløpet og beredskapen i forbindelse med giftalgeangrepet i Astafjorden, Ofotfjorden, Vestfjorden og Tysfjorden våren 2019: hva skjedde, hva ble gjort, hva fungerte og hva fungerte ikke. Rapporten belyser også håndteringen av situasjonen da den oppsto relatert til internkommunikasjon, handlingsrom, disponible ressurser i beredskapen, samt dialog med forvaltning og ...

We focus on a case study along an English canal comparing environmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding with two types of electrofishing techniques (wade‐and‐reach and boom‐boat). In addition to corroborating data obtained by electrofishing, eDNA provided a wider snapshot of fish assemblages. Given the semi‐lotic nature of canals, we encourage the use of eDNA as a fast and cost‐effective tool to detect and ...

Microbial community succession is a fundamental process that affects underlying functions of almost all ecosystems; yet the roles and fates of the most abundant colonizers are often poorly understood. Does early abundance spur long term persistence? How do deterministic and stochastic processes influence the ecological contribution of colonizers? We performed a succession experiment within a hypersaline ...

For almost 30 years, the Sami Parliament has worked to gain influence in the Norwegian fisheries governing system in order to secure Sami fisheries as the material basis of Sami culture. Due to developments in international law and their implementation in state law, the Sami Parliament has gained formal access to the country’s fisheries governance decision-making process. This paper addresses the ...

Antigen processing and presentation by major histocompatibility complex (MHC) molecules is a cornerstone in vertebrate immunity. Like mammals, teleosts possess both classical MHC class I and multiple families of divergent MHC class I genes. However, while certain mammalian MHC class I-like molecules have proven to be integral in immune regulation against a broad array of pathogens, the biological ...

Shrimp trawlers in the Barents Sea use a Nordmøre sorting grid ahead of a small-mesh codend to avoid bycatch while catching shrimps efficiently. However, small fish can still pass through the grid to enter the codend, which increases their risk of being retained. In this study, we quantified the selectivity of a standard Nordmøre grid used together with one of two different codend designs, namely a ...

As environmental DNA (eDNA) becomes an increasingly valuable resource for marine ecosystem monitoring, understanding variation in its persistence across contrasting environments is critical. Here, we quantify the breakdown of macrobial eDNA over a spatio-temporal axis of locally extreme conditions, varying from ocean-influenced offshore to urban-inshore, and between winter and summer. We report that ...

Long-lived species share life history traits such as slow growth, late maturity, and low fecundity, which lead to slow recovery rates and increase a population’s vulnerability to disturbance. The Greenland shark (Somniosus microcephalus) has recently been recognized as the world’s longest-lived vertebrate, but many questions regarding its biology, physiology, and ecology remain unanswered. Here we ...