The two H2020 projects SUMMER and MEESO where funded by the EU Horizon 2020 programme in 2019. Both projects aim at studying mesopelagic challenges. The projects had a joint kick-off meeting in Bilbao during the autumn of 2019. MEESO will work with quantifying the spatio-temporal distributions of biomass, production and ecosystem role of mesopelagic resources and assess options to sustainably manage and govern their exploitation.

MEESO is another EU-H2020 project funded to study the mesopelagic challenges. The overall goal of MEESO is to quantify the spatio-temporal distributions of biomass, production and ecosystem role of mesopelagic resources and to assess options to sustainably manage and govern their exploitation.

To reach this goal, MEESO will create new knowledge and data on the mesopelagic community, its biodiversity, drivers of its biomass, its role in carbon sequestration, its role in the oceanic ecosystem and its interactions with the epipelagic community which includes several important commercial fish stocks.

MEESO is lead by the Institute of Marine Research (IMR) and have 19 European partners, among them SINTEF Ocean which has the responsibility to develop harvesting technology for commercial operations.

Partners:

  1. Havforskningsinstituttet, Norway (coordinator)
  2. Marine Institute, Ireland
  3. SINTEF Ocean AS, Norway
  4. Fundacion Azti – Azti Fundazioa, Spain
  5. Marine and Freshwater Research Institute, Iceland IS
  6. Wageningen University, Netherlands
  7. Danmarks Tekniske Universitet, Denmark
  8. University of Strathclude, United Kingdom
  9. International Council for the Exploration of the Sea, Denmark
  10. Liegruppen Fiskeri AS, Norway
  11. World Maritime University, Sweden
  12. Collecte Localisation Satellites SA, France
  13. IMAR – Instituto Do Mar, Portugal
  14. NOFIMA AS, Norway
  15. United Kingdom Research and Innovation, United Kingdom
  16. Teagasc – Agriculture and Food Development Authority, Ireland
  17. Pelagia AS, Norway
  18. Bord Iascaigh Mhara, Ireland
  19. EUfishmeal, Denmark