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During the meeting in Baku in December 2013, the Intergovernmental Committee of the 2003 UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage, inscribed shrimp fishing on horseback in Oostduinkerke (Flanders, Belgium) in the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. On the one hand, this can be considered as an interesting example of sustainable development with regard to the relation between local groups and communities, policy makers (in the fields of culture and tourism), beaches and the sea, and on the other hand an occasion to stimulate reflection on the relation between traditional know-how, cultural spaces and intangible heritage. The recent history of how the nomination file was assembled, of the follow-up after inscription, and of the special roles played by heritage brokers and a local museum specialized in the history and ethnology of fishing, allow to discuss opportunities and challenges of the new paradigm of safeguarding intangible cultural heritage. In order to interpret these findings, two models are used as sensitizing devices. For one thing the famous article in actor-network theory – on the sociology of translation and the “domestication of the scallops”, by Michel Callon – will be mobilized, whereas the Harvard Business Blue Ocean model, developed by W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne, can function as an eye-opener.

Monthly samples were taken in the surf zone of sandy beaches along the Belgian coast from May 1996 until July 1997 at four selected stations. Temporal patterns of the macrocrustacean and fish species residing the surf zone were investigated, as well as the abiotic variables structuring the community. In total 34 species were recorded belonging to caridean shrimps (3), anomuran and brachyuran crabs (5), cephalopods (2) and fish (24). The brown shrimp Crangon crangon dominated almost all samples (>80%). Total densities often exceeded 400 ind per 100 m², and if C. crangon was excluded 10 ind per 100 m². Notwithstanding the harsh hydrodynamic conditions, the surf zone of Belgian sandy beaches is used intensively by a number of epibenthic macro-crustaceans and demersal fish species. Seven resident and ten migrant species were identified. As mainly juvenile fishes were present, the surf zone of the Belgian sandy beaches may act as a nursery for longer (e.g. plaice Pleuronectes platessa) or shorter (e.g. brill Scophthalmus rhombus) periods. However, its nursery function should be studied in more detail, since the highly dynamic circumstances and more specifically wave height and wind speed may be important structuring factors for the epibenthic communities. The surf zone of Belgian sandy beaches also seems to function as a transient area to other nurseries (e.g. bass Dicentrarchus labrax) or between a nursery and the true marine environment (e.g. dab Limanda limanda). Temporal variation in community structure was greatly masked by spatial differences between sites. Although variables such as salinity and hydrodynamic factors may have influenced the data, clear temperature-related, seasonal patterns occur. Most likely, extreme winter conditions and subsequent migration of organisms to deeper waters caused a decline in winter in both density and diversity.

Since surf zone hyperbenthos, although highly important in local food webs, has often been neglected and very little information is available, a survey of the Belgian sandy beaches was carried out from May 1996 until July 1997. Monthly samples were taken to give a complete record of hyperbenthic organisms occurring in the surf zone of Belgian sandy beaches and to evaluate the intensity by which this surf zone is used. In total 172 species were recorded. The number of species occurring in the surf zone is comparable to that of adjacent areas. As weIl as true hyperbenthic species, endobenthic and planktonic organisms were sampled. More than 75% of the average total sample composition consisted of mysids, mainly Mesopodopsis slabberi, Schistomysis spiritus and Schistomysis kervillei (holohyperbenthos). Apart from several resident species, active and passive seasonal migration towards the surf zone by a number of species is suggested. A large number of sporadic species adds to the composition of surf zone hyperbenthos. Within the merohyperbenthos, postlarval decapods and fish were the dominant organisms. During the year three recruitment peaks were observed. Average densities per month exceeded 1500 ind. 100 m-2. Yearly biomass averages ranged from 300 to over 3000 mg ADW 100 m-2. Densities of the common species are slightly higher in the surf zone than in other habitats, emphasising the importance of the area. Besides a possible nursery function, the surf zone may also be used as a transient area between different habitats. Finally, the influence of several abiotic factors on the hyperbenthic assemblages was evaluated. The main structuring variables determining the occurrence of most of the organisms are water temperature and hydrodynamic factors such as wave height and turbidity. The influence of wave height seems to be two-fold: several good swimmers such as mysids and some fish species are suggested to be able to actively avoid severe wave conditions, whereas other, more planktonic organisms, are passively transported towards the area if wave height increases.

Prey items of 0- and 1-group plaice Pleuronectes platessa, sole Solea solea, brill Scophthalmus rhombus, turbot S. maximus and dab Limanda limanda of the surf zone of a Belgian sandy beach, included hyperbenthic (e.g; mysids), endobenthic (e.g. Polychaetes) and epibenthic (e.g. shrimps) species. Little dietary overlap was observed. If diet overlap did occur, it mainly involved prey species that are dominant in the surf zone of Belgian beaches, such as shrimps and mysids. These results suggest an opportunistic utilization by flatfish of the available food resources in surf zone ecosystems. Also, two strategically different feeding habits could be distinguished between the five flatfish species. Turbot and brill mainly fed on large, highly mobile prey (e.g. fish, mysids) and had a rather narrow prey spectrum, whereas plaice, dab and sole ate more benthic prey (e.g. Polychaetes) and had a broader prey spectrum.

There is a worldwide concern about the expansion of non-indigenous species because they may threaten local biodiversity as some of them may successfully outcompete native species. We report on the presence of two introduced mud worm species, Boccardia proboscidea and Boccardiella hamata, in the southern North Sea, where the former species has been discovered on groynes along the Belgian coast and both species were detected among Pacific oysters Crassostrea gigas in the south-western Dutch delta. Boccardia proboscidea is native to the North Pacific and was first detected in Europe along the Spanish Basque coast in 1996. Our record is the third for European waters and the first for the North Sea. Although B. proboscidea occurs in limited numbers and in ephemeral habitats along the Belgian coast, the species probably has established a permanent population, since it has been reported repeatedly after its first discovery in January 2011. Boccardiella hamata is native to the Atlantic and Gulf coasts of North America. This species has never been recorded from Europe before.Our research demonstrates that in under-studied habitats, such as man-made hard substrata, even well-established populations of newly introduced species may stay undetected. Due to a lack of monitoring of these particular habitats and insufficient knowledge about introduced biota, introduced species may pass unnoticed or may be overlooked for several years. A dedicated monitoring will be necessary to detect introduced species in an early stage. In view of the upcoming Marine Strategy Framework Directive requirements such monitoring will be inevitable.

Montagu’s sea snail Liparis montagui (Donovan, 1804) is a demersal fish species from the Liparidae family, occurring in the inshore waters of the North East Atlantic. It is found around southern Iceland and from the Barents Sea southwards through the North Sea and the Baltic Sea and along European coasts. young specimens are also found in the wadden Sea (1, 2, 3, 4). L. montagui occurs from the intertidal to 30 m, under stones at low tide, in rock pools or clinging to algae (e.g., Fucus). It feeds primarily on gammarid amphipods in intertidal areas and shrimps and small crabs in subtidal areas (2, 3, 5, 6).

Belgium has allocated a 238 km2 zone in the Belgian part of the North Sea (BPNS) to offshore renewable energy production, for example offshore wind farms. At present 109 turbines are operational in the BPNS. In the next few years several hundreds of new turbines will be up and running. A monitoring is being conducted to assess the potential impacts on the marine environment. Although the number of wind turbines during the first six years of the research was relatively limited in the BPNS, some clear effects have been observed. 1. Higher numbers and larger individuals of certain benthic and demersal fish and invertebrates have been observed in the wind farms. These species seem to profit from the high food availability and the absence of fisheries in the farms.2. The steel and concrete foundations of the wind turbines form new habitat in a sandy sea bottom area. These foundations are overgrown very quickly by high numbers of benthic organisms. Many species are known to us from nearby rocky shores; others are exotic.3. Some fish species, like Cod and Pouting, are strongly attracted to the foundations of the wind turbines. These fish mainly feed on organisms growing on the foundations.4. Some bird species, like Northern Cannet, Common Guillemot and Razorbill, avoid the wind farms. Others, like Lesser Black-backed Gull, Common Tern and Sandwich Tern, are attracted to it. The high numbers of prey fish are probably causing this attraction. Collisions with wind turbines are of concern for bigger gulls like the Lesser Black-backed Gull.5. The excessive under water noise during piling disturbs Harbour Porpoises, the only common cetacean in Belgian waters, up to a distance of 20 km. It is not yet clear if the Harbour Porpoises are attracted by the many prey fish near the wind farms, once the operational phase starts.These results show that there are positive and negative effects of offshore wind farms. Future research should focus on the understanding of these effects so that we can optimally support the future policy and management. There is also a need to assess how these effects will evolve once all planned wind turbines in Belgium {ca. 530) and in the entire North Sea {ca. 14.000) will be installed. The assessment of the cumulative effects of all these wind turbines will be the biggest scientific challenge for the future monitoring.

Pelagic fish and their planktonic prey are susceptible to a changing climate, giving rise to mismatches and planktonic bottlenecks. A detailed examination of the feeding ecology of pelagic fish can provide valuable insights in the causes and consequences of these phenomena. The present study investigated the diets of both juvenile and adult herring, sprat, horse mackerel, and adult mackerel in the Belgian part of the North Sea (BPNS) in relation to the distribution of zooplankton and ambient abiotic conditions. A study sampling pelagic fish and zooplankton simultaneously every month during consecutive years, and spanning nearshore to offshore sampling locations, is unprecedented in the southern North Sea. In all, 71 prey taxa were found in 725 stomachs of fish gathered at ten stations, sampled monthly in 2009 and 2010. The proportion of fish with empty stomachs was low (11%), and the number of prey species ranged from 0 to 21 sp. per stomach. The diet of herring and sprat was dominated by calanoid copepods, but herring stomachs also contained many decapod larvae, amphipods, cumaceans, and mysids. Mackerel added sandeels to an otherwise planktivorous diet. Horse mackerel consumed both benthic and pelagic prey. The highest frequency of occurrence in the stomachs was observed for the calanoid copepods Temora longicornis (33 408 of all 55 004 prey items identified) and Centropages hamatus (5003 times found). The fullness index ranged between 0 and 20.6, and averaged highest for sprat (0.86), followed by herring (0.60), horse mackerel (0.26), and mackerel (0.24). We observed a different composition of zooplankton species and life stages in the plankton samples compared with those in the fish stomachs. More adult and female copepods were eaten than the plankton samples would suggest. Also, the calanoid copepod Acartia clausi, the most common calanoid species in the BPNS, was barely eaten, as was the case for fish eggs and larvae, and for common planktonic species known to be preyed upon elsewhere (e.g. Oikopleura dioica, Evadne nordmanni, em>Euterpina acutifrons). Additionally, plankton densities averaged highest in spring and at midshore (20–30 km from shore) stations, but fullness index was highest nearshore (T. longicornis and C. hamatus) accounted for nearly three-quarters of all ingested prey items leads us to conclude that even minor changes in the ecology or phenology of these dominant zooplankters could have profound effects on pelagic fish stocks.

Marine ecology arose from three developments during the 1870s: founding of marine biological stations in Europe and America, voyages of research, especially H.M.S. Challenger, and plankton research, initiated at the University of Kiel. “Mac” McIntosh (1985:49–57) provided a bibliographical guide to the history of marine ecology. Eric Mills’ Biological Oceanography: An Early History, 1870–1960 (1989) is actually limited in scope to the history of plankton research. Marine ecology history is mostly embedded within the context of the history of oceanography, which has an extensive literature (including Herdman 1923, Idyll 1969, Schlee 1973, Ward 1974, Sears and Merriman 1980, Lenz and Deacon 1990, Vanney 1993, Deacon 1997a, Mills 2000, Benson and Rehbock 2002, Morcos and Zhu 2004, Groeben 2013). Of interest is John Murray, chapter 1. “A Brief Historical Review of Oceanographical Investigations” (Murray and Hjort 1912:1–21, with 12 portraits). A few small marine biology stations arose before 1870, but a major impetus for their development was the example set by Anton Dohrn founding his Stazione Zoologica in Naples in 1873. Voyages to explore marine life began in the 1840s, but were only occasional and of short duration until H.M.S. Challenger’s 3.5-year voyage, 1872–1876. The existence of plankton had been known before Victor Hensen named it and connected it to the fate of northern European fisheries; that connection made it seem worthy of sustained intensive research. The impetus of these three developments plus a decline in fish populations led to the founding in 1902 of the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES), which transcended European national Atlantic marine research limitations. ICES inspired the founding of the Commission Internationale pour l’Exploration Scientifique de la Méditerranée. Commercial fisheries science also progressed beyond Europe, and the American story is also discussed. However, rather than discuss the first part of the careers of William Beebe and Henry Bigelow here, both are deferred to part 58. Alister Hardy’s career also extended beyond the 1920s, but with a briefer discussion than planned for Beebe and Bigelow, his account provides an ending for this part 51.

Impact assessments of offshore wind farm installations and operations on the marine fauna are performed in many countries. Yet, only limited quantitative data on the physiological impact of impulsive sounds on (juvenile) fishes during pile driving of offshore wind farm foundations are available. Our current knowledge on fish injury and mortality due to pile driving is mainly based on laboratory experiments, in which high-intensity pile driving sounds are generated inside acoustic chambers. To validate these lab results, an in situ field experiment was carried out on board of a pile driving vessel. Juvenile European sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax) of 68 and 115 days post hatching were exposed to pile-driving sounds as close as 45 m from the actual pile driving activity. Fish were exposed to strikes with a sound exposure level between 181 and 188 dB re 1 µPa2.s. The number of strikes ranged from 1739 to 3067, resulting in a cumulative sound exposure level between 215 and 222 dB re 1 µPa2.s. Control treatments consisted of fish not exposed to pile driving sounds. No differences in immediate mortality were found between exposed and control fish groups. Also no differences were noted in the delayed mortality up to 14 days after exposure between both groups. Our in situ experiments largely confirm the mortality results of the lab experiments found in other studies.

Contains detailed data on landings and totals of Belgian fisheries in 2012, and additionally information on retained fish, rejected fish and fishery grounds.