Project description
Protecting Europe’s fishing industry with streams of Copernicus and GEOSS data
The EU’s fishing industry is the fourth largest in the world. As such, it is important to develop and protect the sustainable exploitation of aquatic resources. This requires accurate and continuous monitoring. In this context, the EU-funded NextOcean project will test whether Copernicus and GEOSS data can be used by fishing authorities to improve control over marine resources and by fishing companies to certify their compliance to sustainability by ecolabeling fish provenance. The data could also assist aquaculture regulators in assessing the impact of fish farms. The project will organise workshops and training sessions to inform the broader community about the use of Earth Observation commercial services.
Objective
The societal need for sustainable exploitation of aquatic resources, requires support to monitoring need to ensure
sustainable fishing, increasingly resorting to aquaculture, and a tighter control on fishing activities provides an opportunity for
commercial EO services in this area. Based on Copernicus and GEOSS data and resources, it is now possible to implement
commercially-oriented services for 1) fishing authorities wishing to have an improved control over marine resources; 2)
responsible fishing companies willing to certify their compliance to sustainability by ecolabeling fish provenance; 3) the fast
growing aquaculture industry assessing their risks and potential revenues; and 4) aquaculture regulators in understanding
the impact of fish farms, in order to decide based on bespoke scientific solutions. NextOcean is proposed by a consortium of
companies, research institutions, a business school and a buyers group supporting the development of innovative services.
It targets fishing and aquaculture by proposing EO commercial services for the public and private sectors. It builds on past
activities, proposing an integrated solution.
The services will address 4User Scenarios: Monitoring Fishing Activities and Impact; Mimisation of Bycatch and
Ecolabeling; Monitoring Aquaculture Impacts; and New Fish Farms.
The involvement of the potential clients is done progressively, with an initial group of Alpha Users already engaged,
supporting co-design of solutions. The buyers group is then enlarged to a wider group of beta testers and potential clients,
who will define further evolutions, and the path to integration into their decision-making processes.
NextOcean will define clear KPIs and success criteria for the services, including on the integration in the value chain.
Dedicated workshops and training sessions will be held with the larger community, where the services will be advertised,
explained and assessed in light of the interests and knowledge of the communities
Fields of science
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
IA - Innovation actionCoordinator
1070-061 LISBOA
Portugal