Projects
News
We are present at "Blått Kompass" during Ocean Week in Tromsø. Audun and Victoria from our Tromsø office are attending the conference, which is held annually by UiT The Arctic University of Norway and the Centre for the Ocean and the Arctic to mark the UN’s World Oceans Day on June 8.
– This is where people, sectors, and industries necessary to find sustainable solutions are brought together, said Director Sigri Stokke Nilsen from the Centre for the Ocean and the Arctic during the opening session of this year’s conference.
For SALT, Ocean Week has also provided an opportunity to discuss measures to save the blue forests beneath the sea, in an event hosted by the Centre for the Ocean and the Arctic and Marine Spark X. Marine biologist Victoria Eggen took part in the discussion on solutions to save our kelp forests.
As of today, there is no international system in place to monitor trash in rivers in the same way it is monitored along coastlines. This may change in the future. In collaboration with NORCE, SALT has been commissioned by the Norwegian Environment Agency to investigate plastic pollution in several Norwegian rivers. The purpose of the project, led by senior researcher Marte Haave at SALT, is to test and provide guidance to authorities on methods and indicators for monitoring marine litter in rivers.
The work is already underway — including in the Lier River, which in 2024 was documented by NORCE as Norway’s most polluted river.
SALT is now part of the international EU-funded Erasmus+ initiative BiodivOcean, which aims to enhance ocean literacy and promote knowledge about marine biodiversity through innovative education and citizen science.
SALT contributes expertise on Arctic ecosystems and brings experience in science communication for schools and communities – and will lead the effort to introduce the VIRTUE tools to Norwegian schools and teachers.
The pilot projects will take place in Troms and Finnmark, but are open to participants from across the country.
The project manager at SALT is Elina Hutton. Read more about the project here
Our talented colleague, Vilma Havas, this week successfully defended her PhD in environmental and resource economics at Aalborg University in Denmark. She brilliantly presented her thesis, "Improving the sustainability of downstream solutions to marine macroplastic pollution by applying systems thinking."
Through her PhD work, Vilma has produced research and policy papers that provide new perspectives and guidelines for Norway and the world on achieving more sustainable management of plastic waste and pollution. Her thesis investigates how the application of systems thinking can improve
the sustainability of existing downstream solutions to marine macroplastic pollution, considering the currently highly linear plastics economy as a global system, while applying a Norwegian perspective to it.
We congratulate Vilma on a excellent PhD defense and look forward to future research projects together!
