Despite the well documented importance of understanding the physical processes occurring in the ocean, there is a lack of in situ subsurface data to calibrate and constrain ocean models and forecasts in coastal and shelf seas. Cost-effective and sustainable ocean and coastal data are needed to help in the understanding of the role of the oceans in earth’s climate and so be able to make improved estimates of how it will change in the future. While the observation of the open ocean is well achieved by automated ocean measurement instruments, coastal and shelf seas suffer from the lack of sub-surface collection platforms. To meet this challenge, there is an emerging community collaborating with fishers using their fishing gears as platforms for sensors to collect oceanographic data in data scarce regions which complement today's ocean observing networks. These data are also important to understand the physical-biological interactions in the marine ecosystems through an end-to-end approach, including fisheries for the stakeholders who collect these data. This theme session provides an opportunity to be aware of the latest developments in technologies and methodologies for acquiring oceanographic data from fishing vessels. Four main topics will be addressed during the theme session: (a) State of the art in ocean observing systems from fishing vessels; (b) Sensors and other devices to be used in fishing gears and vessels; (c) The use and application of these data, e.g. in operational oceanography, models’ validation and forecasting, fisheries research, and commercial fishing activities; (d) Data management to facilitate interoperability and industry data usage.
Lead Organizer: A. Miguel Santos, IPMA-Portuguese Institute for the Ocean and Atmosphere, Portugal (amsantos@ipma.pt)
Co-organizers:
Cooper Van Vranken, Ocean Data Network, USA (cooper@oceandata.net)
Michela Martinelli, CNR, Italy (michela.martinelli@cnr.it)
Hassan Moustahfid, NOAA/US IOOS, USA (hassan.moustahfid@noaa.gov)
Presentations
08:30 AM
THE FISHING VESSEL OCEAN OBSERVING NETWORK: TOWARDS ADVANCING COLLABORATIVE OBSERVATIONS FOR SUSTAINABILITY OF OUR OCEANS (5362)
Primary Presenter: Cooper Van Vranken, Ocean Data Network (cooper@oceandata.net)
Ocean observations are a key foundation for our understanding of the ocean. While there have been great leaps forward in monitoring of our oceans there are still critical data gaps. The uncertainty resulting from these data gaps hinders ocean predictions and forecasts leading to suboptimal management and policy decisions. The spatio-temporal extent of these data gaps overlaps significantly with fishing activities. Fishing vessels can serve as platforms that can host and deploy an assortment of oceanographic instrumentations; and, the fact that many fishing gear types already profile through the water column presents a unique subsurface data collection opportunity that are dearly needed for improving ocean predictions. This opportunity can complement existing ocean observing networks by enabling the cost-effective collection of subsurface ocean data to dramatically increase coverage in data-sparse regions. There is an emerging global network of programs and projects engaging in collaborative efforts to collect ocean data integrated with fishing operations accelerated by innovations in enabling technologies. While there are clear opportunities that arise from partnering with fishing vessels, there are also challenges ranging from geographic and cultural differences in fleets, fishing methods and practices, data processing and management for heterogeneous data, as well as long term engagement of the fishers. To advance fishing vessel-based ocean observations on a global scale, the Fishing Vessel Ocean Observing Network (FVON) has been formed to maximize data value, establish best practices, and facilitate observation uptake. FVON's ultimate goal is to foster collaborative fishing vessel-based observations, democratize ocean observations, improve ocean predictions, promote sustainable fishing, and power the data-driven new blue economy.
08:45 AM
environmental Monitors on Lobster Traps and Large Trawlers (eMOLT): Fishermen supported data collection in the Northeastern United States and Eastern Canada (6584)
Primary Presenter: George Maynard, NOAA Fisheries (george.maynard@noaa.gov)
The environmental Monitors on Lobster Traps and Large Trawlers (eMOLT) program is a collaborative effort between the Northeast Fisheries Science Center and the Gulf of Maine Lobster Foundation with support from commercial fishermen, the tech industry, and regional non-profit organizations. Fishermen who participate in the program use a range of sensors attached to their gear to collect environmental observations during the course of their normal fishing operations. These observations include bottom temperature, water column temperature profiles, dissolved oxygen, and depth. The measurements are immediately visible to the captains on a computer in their wheelhouse and are wirelessly transmitted back to a server via satellite or cellular network in near real time. From there, the real time observations are used to fine tune ocean forecast models and the historic data are put to use in a range of data products at the Northeast Fisheries Science Center. The eMOLT program currently has nearly 100 participating vessels on the east coast of North America between New Jersey and New Brunswick and over 12 million individual data points collected between 1996 and the present. In this talk we describe the evolution of the eMOLT program over time, instrumentation presently in use, our efforts to make the data available to the broader scientific community, and our plans for the future of the program.
09:00 AM
Fisheries Observing Systems: low cost-effective devices used for monitoring pelagic habitats in the Iberian Atlantic shelf and slope (7173)
Primary Presenter: Tamara Rodríguez Ramos, Spanish Institute of Oceanography (IEO-CSIC) (tamara.rodriguez@ieo.csic.es)
Exploring the vast ocean at spatial and temporal resolutions fine enough to characterize key oceanographic processes is unaffordable. Hence, new technologies and platforms to obtain in situ data as a complement to RV surveys are being developed. Here, we present results from functionality and performance tests carried out to optimise a Fisheries Observing System (FOS) workflow. This FOS version is composed of sensors (WiSens data logger) and data processing tools (MobCo receiver and BlueCherry.io cloud platform) with improved connectivity features with respect to older devices. Tests were performed in several cruises off the Iberian Peninsula both in research and commercial vessels during MyCOAST and iFADO projects. FOS performance was tested on several data logging configurations and in different collection platforms (fishing gears and plankton nets). Although the basic FOS was proved to work without human intervention, several shortcomings were identified that significantly limit the complete automation and controllability of the process. To deal with them, some tools were developed, such as an API to interact with the data cloud platform, an alert system to communicate data processing and error events, a web application for data visualisation and tools for real time and delayed mode dissemination to data hubs. Our results demonstrate that the improved FOS version is sufficiently mature to be implemented in commercial fishing vessels for sustained monitoring of ocean physics and biogeochemistry as a contribution to the IEO observing system (IEOOS) in Spanish waters.
09:15 AM
The Moana Project's Mangōpare Sensor Programme: Demonstrating a Nation-wide Fishing Vessel-Based Ocean Observing System (7104)
Primary Presenter: Julie Jakoboski, Meteorological Service of New Zealand (julie.jakoboski@metocean.co.nz)
In-situ ocean observations are critical to understanding the subsurface ocean on local, regional, and global scales. Many ocean stakeholders depend on activities that occur primarily in coastal and shelf seas, including commercial fishing, tourism, industry, and recreation. Providing high-quality ocean measurements in these highly-variable regions can inform policy and management decisions, improve ocean forecasts, support our blue economy, enable research, and provide tools for more sustainable commercial fishing. Existing ocean observing systems provide global subsurface ocean coverage; however, a gap exists in areas shallower than 1000 m. To address this gap and complement existing ocean observatories, the Moana Project instrumented fishing gear on more than 200 fishing vessels, New Zealand-wide, with fit-for-purpose temperature and depth sensors in partnership with technology partner Zebra-Tech and the commercial fishing sector. The system is robust and fully automatic, providing over 15 million subsurface, near real-time measurements throughout New Zealand’s exclusive economic zone from June 2020 until the present day. We demonstrate the feasibility of a lost-cost, scientific-quality sensor and data pathway on a national scale with benefits to the broader ocean community, and discuss strategies, lessons learned, and future opportunities in New Zealand and abroad.
09:30 AM
NAUTILOS Fisheries and Aquaculture Observing Systems (5892)
Primary Presenter: Michela Martinelli, National Research Council - Institute of Marine Biological Resources and Biotechnologies (CNR-IRBIM), Largo Fiera della Pesca 2, 60125 Ancona, Italy (michela.martinelli@cnr.it)
The EU H2020 NAUTILOS project aims to fill the existing gaps in marine observation and modeling through the development of new technologies and their deployment on different observational platforms. One specific focus of the project is the promotion of innovative and cost-effective methods in a wide range of crucial environmental contexts and applications relating to EU policies. Starting from the experience of the AdriFOOS and RECOPESCA programs, in order to exploit the capacity of commercial fishing vessels as an emerging ocean observation platform, NAUTILOS is designing, deploying and testing a new generation of sensors for essential ocean variable data collection. A similar approach will be used for new “aquaculture observing systems” with observations made by vessels of opportunities and nearby aquaculture facilities, which will provide a new means for the sustainable management of aquaculture. To further extend the potential of commercial fisheries as an observation platform, some vessels will also be used to test new underwater passive click recorders for the assessment of echo-locating marine mammal abundance. Assessment and demonstration activities will be held all over Europe, including Atlantic and Mediterranean sites.
09:45 AM
Building a Fishery-based Biogeochemical Observing Network in U.S. Coastal Waters: Major Findings from a Scoping Workshop (6232)
Primary Presenter: Zhaohui Aleck Wang, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (zawang@whoi.edu)
The coastal ocean is experiencing large biogeochemical changes, such as changes in carbon cycling, hypoxia and coastal acidification, under human pressure and climate change. Studying these changes and mitigating their impacts demands significantly improved coverage of biogeochemical (BGC) observation in the coastal ocean. However, existing observing networks fall short largely due to prohibitive high costs of implementation and maintenance. Fishery-based observation can effectively fill in observational gaps, achieve cost-effective measurements and deliver actionable data at relevant spatiotemporal resolutions to illuminate coastal dynamics. Its capability has been demonstrated by past and ongoing fishery observing programs focusing mostly on deployment of physical (temperature and salinity) sensors on fishing vessels and gear. Collection of data also enhances interactions between the science and fishing communities leading to important insights into changes in ocean conditions. Recent advances in low-cost, robust BGC sensing technologies have the potential to enable fishery-based BGC observation. A recent scoping workshop supported by the US Ocean Carbon Biogeochemistry (OCB) has made an important step towards establishing a fishery-based BGC observing network in the US coastal regions. The aim is to collaborate with the commercial fishing community to start to deploy low-cost, robust in situ BGC sensors along with physical sensors on fishing vessels and gear in the US Northeast region, fully scalable to other US regions and internationally. This presentation will discuss the major findings from the workshop, including technical, managerial, and societal achievements that makes it ready for launching such a BGC network. We also seek international collaboration to establish a global fishery-based observing network.
SS042 Fishing4Data: Fishing Gear as an Oceanographic Data Collection Platform
Description
Time: 8:30 AM
Date: 9/6/2023
Room: Sala Portixol 2