Demonstrations

Fisheries Observing Systems

Dissolved Oxygen and Fluorescence (Chl-a) sensors (and stand-alone communication hub) are developed in ST3.1.2, calibrated in ST6.1.1, validated at sea in T5.3.1, integrated on the Fishery and Oceanography Observing System (FOOS) in T5.3.1 and finally demonstrated at sea onboard commercial fishing vessels, operating daily in two different European areas:

sensors embedded in the FOOS are installed by CNR-IRBIM on a bottom trawler operating in the Central Adriatic Sea, to verify sensors robustness, batteries duration and near-real time communication; collected data is then sent to a cloud database integrating all info at a haul level (eg. catch info, oceanographic data, GPS position etc.)
sensors and hub are installed by Ifremer on a vessel using passive gears in the Bay of Biscay and are periodically monitored to quantify drifts, evaluate measurement cycles and verify GPS positioning.

Acoustic Marine Mammal Monitoring System

Demonstration deployments of the enhanced AQUAclick marine mammal passive click recorder are planned. Commercial fishermen in the Swedish Sound/Kullaberg/Lysekil waters deploy AQUAclicks in winter/early spring, targeting lumpfish, and in the autumn, targeting cod. Additional demonstration is carried out in the Portofino MPA cetaceans’ sanctuary.

Augmented Observing Systems

The Poseidon research infrastructure (https://poseidon.hcmr.gr) will host the NAUTILOS sensors demonstrations and the joint Autonomous vehicles and Lander missions. The demonstrations will take place in the South Aegean and Ionian Sea in parallel operations with a multiplatform observation network including:

Coastal stations and Open sea stations
(https://poseidon.hcmr.gr/components/observing-components/buoys)
Ferrybox transects
(https://poseidon.hcmr.gr/components/observing-components/ferrybox-system)
Glider missions
(https://poseidon.hcmr.gr/components/observing-components/gliders)
and R/V surveys for maintenance, equipment deployment/recovery and analytical sampling for sensor validation. Furthermore, a deep-sea experiment will take place in waters below 2000m with the Lander platform as host of the project sensors and modules.

Animal-borne instruments

A collaborative effort to investigate the use of dissolved oxygen sensors in two different animal tagging systems to help better understand the animals ecology, their habitats and the marine ecosystem in general, via their uniquely valuable in-situ data returned from the oceans.
The first type of system, by CEiiA and IMAR, is a non-invasive and low drag multisensor tag. Deployments can last for a number of days at a time and will be performed on sharks and manta rays in the Archipelago of the Azores.
The second type of system, by CNRS-CEBC, is especially suited to the long-term tracking of elephant seals from weeks to months at a time depending on the animal migration patterns and will be used in the Valdes Peninsula, Argentina.
Therefore, data can be collected in distinct regions and shared with the wider community, such as via AniBOS.

Aquaculture Observing Systems

Novel sensor deployments on FerryBoxes and fishery research vessels in coastal regions of Norway and Greece with mariculture and fish farm plants will be utilized. At the same time, DO and chl a sensors from and carbonate system sensors will be in operation at the mariculture and fish farming sites to provide complementary data of higher temporal resolution. Data collected will be QC/QA via a real-time cloud database and used to generate short-term regional forecasts of ocean EOVs and other MSFD-related variables for improving management for sustainable aquaculture. Realtime data stream from underway sensor operations will be utilized to enable real-time event detection from concept change detection, with an adaptive machine learning approach.

Platforms of opportunity

A network of FerryBoxes infrastructures operating in different regions and covering a wide range of environmental parameters will be available for the demonstration of the sensors. Initial verification flights and full demonstrations of sensors, integrated on its UAV platforms, will be performed in:

Coastal Norway: NorSOOP FerryBoxes (NIVA) on M/S Trollfjord;
Gulf of Finland: SYKE Ferryboxes;
Aegean Sea: Poseidon FerryBox (HCMR) installed onboard H/S/F Festos Palace.

Data streams from UAVs and FerryBox underway observations will be combined to apply data stream mining and concept change detection, leading towards automated, AI-based event- and anomaly-detection. All the collected data will be compared and, where possible, satellite data (phytoplankton bloom measurements/detection and other ocean colour related variables) comparisons will be also made to augment the multi-layered approach to ocean monitoring and observation. For the case of the Baltics, the FerryBox-UAV combined observations of cyanobacterial bloom surface accumulations during July-August will be demonstrated in connection with AI-based event detection.

ARGO Platform

A new generation of silicate sensor will be implemented onto ARGO profiling float. Water samples will be collected during deployment to make comparative measurement with colorimetry reference instruments. This deployment will be performed up to 2000 m in the Mediterranean Sea during a cruise. Data will be integrated and used to produce scientific outputs. This demonstration will contribute to enhance the monitoring of the oceans in regions undergoing deoxygenation. This provides a key high-profile demonstration on what are currently the world’s most numerous platform arrays.

Demonstrations Consent Forms

Data Policy