Imagine placing a series of invisible electronic tripwires across the busiest sea lanes in Europe. When tagged fish or mammals swim past, these sensors log their movement, acting like a GPS for the ocean. This helps us understand exactly where animals travel and how to protect their homes.
Marine managers lack large-scale, evidence-based data on animal movements to create effective conservation policies. Current tracking is often fragmented and lacks a unified data management system across borders.
A pan-European tracking infrastructure consisting of 4 operational acoustic arrays and integrated data management plans for multi-species monitoring.
If you are a shipping company dealing with strict environmental regulations and whale strike risks — this project developed a tracking network across 4 key European straits that provides data on marine mammal movements. This allows for better route planning to avoid protected species.
If you are a consultancy dealing with biodiversity impact assessments for offshore projects — this project developed integrated data management for multi-species tracking. You can use this evidence-based data to justify conservation zones to governing bodies.
If you are a sensor manufacturer dealing with hardware failure in harsh currents — this project developed systematic range testing and receiver optimization. The results show how environmental conditions affect detection in 4 different sea regions.
Based on available project data, specific pricing or implementation costs are not provided.
The project has deployed operational acoustic arrays in 4 major European regions (Danish Straits, Irish SeaMonitor, Turkish Straits, and Gibraltar), demonstrating a regional scale of operation.
Based on available project data, the project focuses on delivering data to national and international governing bodies, but specific licensing terms are not mentioned.
It integrates acoustic tracking with Passive Acoustic Monitoring (PAM) devices and environmental sensors to monitor underwater noise and marine mammals.
The project period runs from 2023-01-01 to 2026-12-31, with arrays already reported as fully operational during the second reporting period.
The consortium is heavily weighted toward research and academia, consisting of 10 partners from 8 countries. With 4 universities and 6 research organizations, and 0% industry participation, the project is driven by scientific discovery and public policy rather than immediate commercial product development.
Contact The Foyle, Carlingford and Irish Lights Commission in Ireland
Contact us to find partners for implementing these tracking standards in your maritime operations.
