Tag Archives: OneOceanWeek

One Ocean Week 2026 – our events

Another event-packed One Ocean Week is behind us, and the marine group has participated both on the science fair at Festingskaien as part of the Family day, and with an evening of talks on the exploration of marine life.

April 19th: Family Day

We brough with us several activities that we have created through the MarDivA-project. Most eye-catching and enticing was our (huge!) board game “Fjærelære” (“ShoreLore”?) which is normally only available for teachers to book for their students as part of a museum visit (this was also a popular event during the week, as the activity was offered daily at the museum).

Odette, one of the MarDivA-members from the museum communications department was game master extraordinaire, and did a wonderful job adapting the game on the fly so that everyone who wanted could have a go. We also brought with us our own version of the game “Guess who”. The third activity was an exclusive preview of what we have been developing this year; we have a beautiful drawing of the entire ocean, and various organisms that should be placed where they belong. The drawings here are made by local illustrator Gunvor Rasmussen, who we have hired as part of MarDivA.

Finally, we had a table for colouring pages of a variety of ocean animals, always a popular activity.

collage showing the activities described in the text; the drawings are in a fun, colourful, watercolour style
Many activities to choose from at our stand at the Family Day!

April 23rd: Evening talks at Litteraturhuset

The University Museum once again invited the public to join us on an evening of exploring marine life as part of One Ocean Week here in Bergen. The event was held at Litteraturhuset, a lovely venue that we filled close to capacity!

Sophie introduced the marine research that is going on at the museum, followed by five 15-minute talks about our study organisms (/favourite critters!).

Six images showing the people who took the stage, each in front of one of their slides
Event organiser Sophie and the five presenters in action.

The talks and speakers were:

  • Seaweeds: Foundation Species and Future Ocean Resources (Elena)
  • Slugs: Extravagance & Drugs in a Nutshell (Manuel)
  • Amphipoda: From Beach-Hoppers to Deep-Sea Giants (Anne Helene)
  • Jellyfish vs. Salmon: Coexistence or Collision? (Luis)
  • Exploring the diversity of moss animals (Bryozoa) in Norway (Katrine)

We ended with a Q&A session with great audience participation.

Three images in a collage: on eis the event advertisement image, which shows: an red crustacean, a white, coral-like colony of bryozoa, a green algae, a white, etheral jellysgish, and a white-and-orange sea slug on a black background, with the texts "Secrets of the Sea" in the centre
Q&A session after the talks, with an enthusiastic audience

Thank you so much to all the audience at both events, and for your ocean enthusiasm!

-Katrine

If you would like to know more about the topics we covered in the talks, you can start here:

Seaweeds

Manet Team: Cnidaria and Ctenophora research | UiB

Mollusca Research | UiB

Bryozoa/moss animals (also on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nordigbryo/)  

#AmphipodThursday (sjekk også norske poster #TangloppeTorsdag om du leser det, og her om det nyeste norske prosjektet på tanglopper: MADAM)

One Ocean Week plans 2026

The marine team at the University museum has a rich and varied track record of events during the annual week long ocean-themed festival Bergen throws.

This year, look for our stand at the Family Day (Sunday April 19th), or come to our talks on Thursday April 23rd at Litteraturhuset: Secrets of the Sea – Discovering marine life – One Ocean Week

Hope to see you there!

One Ocean Week 2025 – “Exploring marine life”

In addition to the activities during the family day on Sunday 6th within the context of One Ocean Week 2025, we had a behind-the-scenes special session at Litteraturhuset called “Exploring marine life”, where some of us at the Invertebrate Collections shared our recent field trips and research activities, and the cool creatures we encounter when we venture into the wild ocean.

First, Aino opened the event and showed that the Museum not only have fantastic exhibitions, but also passionate and talented researchers that keep producing new biodiversity knowledge at worldwide scale.

Two photos: a woman stading in fromt of a screen, and a close-up of the screen showing the programme

Aino opening the session “Exploring marine life” at the One Ocean Week 2025 in Bergen. Picture credit: Alexandre Jan and Joan J. Soto-Angel

This year’s lecturers, Sophie, Joan, Nataliya and Praveen introducing how we at the Museum explore and study biodiversity. Picture credit for the next 4 photos: Alexandre Jan and Sophie Steinhagen

Sophie was the first speaker to open the lectures. She guided us on the importance of macro and microalgae for basic and applied research, and how fundamental it is at many levels to be able to tell species apart.

Sophie ready to begin the talk "From green waves to green farms". The slide is in white and green

Sophie and the talk “From green waves to green farms”

Joan invited us to join him on a trip to the remote polar regions. He shared some of the highlights he found while chasing rare polyps and jellyfish. He also explained the challenges associated with working in extreme environments, how crucial jellyfish are for the normal functioning of marine ecosystems, and the little we know about most of them.

Joan and "Hunting jellyfish at the edge of the world", the slide shows an Antarctic landscape with ice and ocean

Joan and “Hunting jellyfish at the edge of the world”

Nataliya shared outstandingly beautiful pictures of the commonly misunderstood worms. She illuminated everyone in the audience with the great variety of shapes, colors and life strategies that worms come in. From intertidal animals to deep sea inhabitants, she gave many examples on how unearthly their ways of surviving and thriving can be.

Nataliya and her talk "Why do we need to study marine worms?". On the slide behind her is a green worm in the family Phyllodocidea, the paddle worms. It looks a bit like a dragon with many legs

Nataliya and her talk “Why do we need to study marine worms?”

Praveen closed the session with a comprehensive talk on jellyfish diversity in Norway, focusing on the work he is doing as part of his PhD with the poorly known but mesmerizing siphonophores and the vastly unexplored Norwegian Sea.

Praveen presenting the talk "Beware the Beauty: Norway's Stunning and Stinging Jellyfish" On the slide behind him is a close up of a siphonophore, looking like a (stinging!) cloud of balloons

Praveen presenting the talk “Beware the Beauty: Norway’s Stunning and Stinging Jellyfish”

The lectures constituted an opportunity for everyone in Bergen to take a closer look at our work at the Invertebrate Collections, and we genuinely enjoyed sharing our favourite creatures with a crowd avid to know more about natural wonders. We are already looking forward to One Ocean Week 2026!

-Joan

You can read about our participation on Family Day during One Ocean Week here:

One Ocean Week 2025 – Family Day, April 6th, Festningskaien