The 9^th annual retreat of the Department of Marine Biology took place at the 19/1/2023 at the Student’s building at the University of Haifa. It was attended by about 100 participants, including PhD and MSc students, post-doc scholars, principle investigators, lab managers, research associates and representative of five sponsoring companies. The retreat began with a musical tribute to the efforts of organizing team and the participant who made this awesome event. Following that, Dr. Rotem Kadir from the foodtech company, Mermaid foods, gave a talk about the foodtech industry in Israel and the opportunities for culture-based seafood development. During the retreat, students and researchers presented their scientific works in oral presentation and posters, demonstrating the multidisciplinary research in the department that advances the understanding of life in the oceans, from genes and proteins to organisms and ecosystems.

Special thanks to Cláudia Ferreira that designed the beautiful logo that decorated the gift-mugs and the program; to Prashant Tewari, Lior Shimoni and Alhan Abu Hamoud for organizing the fun activity including a bingo around the department quiz, a qahut, pantomime competition and dances; to Hagai Nativ for the beautiful photographs and videos of the event  and to our generous sponsors: Mermaid foods, Getter group, VectorBuilder, Aquazone and Tivan biotech.

 Congratulations to all!