Høst 2025

FSK-3624 Marine litter and Arctic fisheries: Challenges and solutions - 10 stp

The course is administrated by

Norges fiskerihøgskole

Type of course

MSc-course. The course can be taken as a singular course.

Course contents

The course is focused on Arctic fisheries and the impact from marine litter and possible methods to mitigate problems related to pollution of important fishing grounds. Loss of plastics, including modern fishing gears, is a global problem and causes challenges like spread of macro- and micro-plastics and ghost fishing leading to unaccounted mortality. It is estimated that the loss of potential harvest from commercially important fish counts billions of euros annually. Students will be given firsthand knowledge on how fishing gears are built from various materials and introduced to methods to record, measure and mitigate marine litter during theoretical training and field-work. This course will be linked to the Centre for research-based innovation SFI Dsolve and the UArcticnetwork. Focus will primarily be on circumpolar issues, including circularity and governance initiatives to introduce alternative materials in fisheries and aquaculture.

Admission requirements

Applicants who have completed a BSc degree in fiskeri- og havbruksvitenskap (fisheries and aquaculture science), aquaculture science, marine biology, marine technology, environmental studies or material sciences.

Minimum number of seats is 7. Number of seats is maximum 25.

Application code 9371.

Objective of the course

Students who have completed this course will be able to:

Knowledge:

Describe the basic fishing methods applied in Arctic fisheries.
Understand the economic importance of key species and the main principles of fisheries management.
Understand how and why marine litter occur in the Arctic regions.
Know the sources and to which extent fisheries has a share of marine litter.
Understand the properties and difference between bioplastics, bio-degradable plastics and non-degradable (fossil-fuel based) plastics.
Know methods and programs to mitigate marine litter.
Understand how marine litter impact indigenous communities.
Know principles for the circularity of various types of plastics.
Understand how governance incentives can be used to increase the use of biodegradable materials

Skills:

Be able to describe and debate the challenges by marine litter in the Arctic fisheries.
Read scientific publications critically.
Write a field report.
Be able to explain, teach and implement marine litter analyses.
Implement relevant study designs in issues related to marine litter.
Write a scientific essay.

General competence:

Be able to demonstrate a holistic understanding of challenges created by marine litter in Arctic environments.
Be able to utilize scientific literature to identify information needed to understand, interpret and critically evaluate data from experiments addressing marine litter and use of various plastics in fisheries and aquaculture.
Be able to describe how non-degradable (fossil-fuel based) plastics can be replaced by bio-degradable plastics (and bioplastics) in future fisheries and aquaculture.
Be able to demonstrate an understanding of legal, regulatory, and ethical considerations relating to marine litter within the broader societal context.
Be able to improve their scientific writing skills
Be able to communicate knowledge on relevant science in a clear and concise way on challenges related to marine litter in the circumpolar arctic areas.

Language of instruction

The language of instruction is English, and the syllabus material is in English. Examination questions will be given in English but may be answered either in English or a Scandinavian language.

Teaching methods

Lectures, seminars, and field work (beach cleaning, marine litter identification and reporting). Field work is mandatory, and students will be given safety training in front