The Norwegian Institute of Marine Research () is a national consultative research institute which is owned by the Ministry of Fisheries and Coastal Affairs. The institute performs research and provides advisory services in the fields of marine ecosystems and aquaculture. With a staff of almost 1100, the Institute of Marine Research is the largest centre of marine research in Norway, and among the largest in Europe. The institute has a highly qualified scientific staff, high-technology research stations and laboratories in

Austevoll Austevoll is a List of municipalities of Norway, municipality and an archipelago in Vestland county, Norway. It is located in the Traditional districts of Norway, traditional district of Midthordland in Western Norway. The administrative centre ...

Bergen Bergen (, ) is a city and municipalities of Norway, municipality in Vestland county on the Western Norway, west coast of Norway. Bergen is the list of towns and cities in Norway, second-largest city in Norway after the capital Oslo. By May 20 ...

(head office), Flødevigen ( Arendal) and Matre, a department in

Tromsø Tromsø is a List of towns and cities in Norway, city in Tromsø Municipality in Troms county, Norway. The city is the administrative centre of the municipality as well as the administrative centre of Troms county. The city is located on the is ...

and several vessels. The primary responsibility of the Institute of Marine Research is to provide advice to national authorities, society and industry regarding questions related to the ecosystems of the

Barents Sea The Barents Sea ( , also ; , ; ) is a marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean, located off the northern coasts of Norway and Russia and divided between Norwegian and Russian territorial waters.World Wildlife Fund, 2008. It was known earlier among Russi ...

, the Norwegian Sea, the

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Denmark, Norway, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and France. A sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian Se ...

and the Norwegian coastal zone and in the field of aquaculture. The institute is heavily engaged in development aid activities through it
Centre for Development Cooperation in Fisheries
Norwegian Fisheries Investigations ("Norske Fiskeriundersøgelser") was initiated in

Oslo Oslo ( or ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of 1,064,235 in 2022 ...

in 1864. In 1900 the investigations was located to Bergen, and in 1947, the institute was separated as a research institute under the Norwegian Directorate of Fisheries. To further ensure its independence, the institute became an independent institution in 1989. Among important scientific contributions was Johan Hjort's pivotal work on «Fluctuations in the Great Fisheries of Northern Europe» (1914). Einar Lea's use of

ASDIC Sonar (sound navigation and ranging or sonic navigation and ranging) is a technique that uses sound propagation (usually underwater, as in submarine navigation) to navigate, measure distances ( ranging), communicate with or detect objects o ...

to find

herring Herring are various species of forage fish, belonging to the Order (biology), order Clupeiformes. Herring often move in large Shoaling and schooling, schools around fishing banks and near the coast, found particularly in shallow, temperate wate ...

schools (1947) and the use of Echo Integration for estimating fish abundance (Midtun & Hoff, 1962) are also notable.

External links

The Norwegian Institute of Marine Research homepage
Fisheries and aquaculture research institutes Environment of Norway Barents Sea Fishing in Norway {{norway-gov-stub