Pärnu marine laboratory

The Pärnu marine laboratory of the Estonian Marine Institute is located in the city of Pärnu, and research on fish, benthos, plankton, and marine litter is mainly carried out there.

Work/accommodation places:   11/10

In the Pärnu marine laboratory following reseach can be conducted:

• surveys of major commercial fish stocks;
• fisheries monitoring (net monitoring, test trawls, etc.);
• expert assessments of fisheries;
• studies of fish spawning areas;
• studies of fish larvae and juveniles;
• determination of fish migrations and habitats based on C and N isotopes;
• research of fish and fish larvae habitats (stimulation areas) using molecular biological methods;
• taking and fixing various tissue samples;
• measurement of parameters of the water environment using appropriate sondes;
• preservation of zoo- and ichthyoplankton, their taxonomic identification and determination of abundance and biomass (also using an automatic analysator ZooScan);
• different kind of laboratory experiments (e.g. monitoring the development and parthenogenetic reproduction of fertilized eggs) using climate chambers with altered environmental conditions;
• counting, measuring, and determining the individual mass of plankton organisms;
• drying (up to 300 °C) and deep freezing (up to -96 °C) marine organisms, plants, and algae.