As part of the background research for our expedition to the Norwegian Fjords and prior to joining the research cruise, Mary and I paid a visit to the University Museum of Bergen. The aim was to investigate bryozoan specimens collected from deep water around the coastline of Norway during the recent MAREANO project surveys.

The Bergen museum was actually founded in 1825 - they moved to the current building in 1866, and it is divided into two departments. These encompass Natural History Collections and the Cultural History Collections. There are also public events and exhibitions. The museum is situated within the grounds of a former Botanical gardens.

Renovations underway at the University Museum of Bergen.

The building is currently being renovated, so in order to view the holdings of the bryozoan material, we were hosted by curator Jon Anders Kongsrud, and taken to University of Bergen Marine Biological Station by the waterfront at Espeland. The lab is situated in a lovely bay, and it was great weather with sunshine and blue skies, paradise for a marine bryozoologist .

Enjoying the sunshine at Espeland Marine Biological Station.

We spent an industrious morning at the microscopes, viewing the MAREANO material collected in 2009. Among the samples were specimens collected from deep water stations around 2,000m, and we were able to identify some interesting species.

Identification under way in the lab at Espeland.

    Samples from the MAREANO collection.

A species of Bicellarina from the MAREANO collection.

This was an excellent opportunity to meet some of the staff and to enjoy the Norwegian hospitality. After lunch we were introduced to Emeritus Professor Brattegard, who has been compiling a checklist of the Norwegian bryozoan fauna, which he shared with us. His long experience in studying the distribution patterns of Norwegian marine life meant that he could also suggest some interesting locations for us to go and survey.

Following the visit, the last task of preparation for the day was to transport the consignment of sampling buckets from the marine station to the hotel in Bergen.

Mary manouvreing our bryozoan sampling buckets.

Tomorrow we will be joining the diving vessel MV Halton at the Bryggen waterfront in Bergen, ready to load on board all the equipment and supplies needed for the survey. We will need a large taxi to transport all our dive gear and equipment from the hotel!