Global Fish Tracking System (GFTS)
Helping to obtain accurate insights into fish populations for data-driven conservation policies.
In a nutshell
- The lack of accurate modelling of fish movement, migration strategies, and site fidelity is a major challenge for policy-makers when they need to formulate effective conservation policies.
- By relying on the Pangeo infrastructure on the DestinatE Platform, the Use Case aims to predict the sea bass behavior and develop a Decision Support Tool (DST) for “what-if” scenario planning.
- As a result, the Use Case will help to obtain accurate insights into fish populations by introducing the Global Fish Tracking System (GFTS) and a Decision Support Tool into the DestinE Platform.
Technical Overview
Challenge
In the vast and complex arena of global fishery management, the absence of precise data on fish movements and habitats poses a significant barrier to formulating effective conservation policies. The International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) has identified a critical information gap regarding the essential habitats of sea bass, a species with considerable economic and ecological importance. Existing models lack the spatial and temporal accuracy required for reliable decision-making, making it challenging to protect these vital marine resources effectively.
DestinE Solution
Utilising the Pangeo infrastructure on the DestinE Platform, the GFTS project integrates a suite of advanced tools and methodologies to improve our understanding of sea bass behaviour. By harnessing the power of Climate Change Adaptation data from the Climate DT (Routine and On-Demand for some higher resolution tracking), high-resolution sea temperature observation (Satellite, in-situ) from Copernicus Marine services (Sea temperature and associated value), Bathymetry (Gebco) and biologging in-situ data obtained from tagged-fish, the project will create an unprecedentedly detailed picture of fish movements. The pangeo-fish model, adhering to FAIR and TRUST principles, will facilitate the integration of diverse data sources, enabling scalable computations and collaborative development.
The technical framework, including Xarray and Dask, will facilitate scalable computations, while the collaborative development on GitHub will ensure an iterative, open-science approach. The approaches and models developed as part of this use case will be applicable in a highly generalised way across different scales and areas of interest, ensures that the resulting Decision Support Tool (DST) is not only robust and comprehensive but also adaptable and user-friendly, capable of simulating various “what-if” scenarios.
Impact
The introduction of the Global Fish Tracking System (GFTS) and the Decision Support Tool (DST) into the DestinE Platform represents a significant asset for fishery management and marine conservation. In the short term, these tools will provide policy advisers and conservationists with detailed, actionable insights into fish populations, facilitating the creation of more effective and targeted conservation measures. The user-friendly interface of the DST ensures that both primary and secondary users can make informed, data-driven decisions, promoting sustainable management practices.
In the long term, the GFTS project is poised to establish a sustainable foundation for marine ecosystem conservation. Its commitment to open science and collaborative development promises to enhance the reproducibility and accessibility of its findings, fostering further research and innovation in the field. By providing a comprehensive understanding of fish behaviour and migration through advanced modelling and data integration, the project empowers stakeholders to bridge the gap between complex scientific models and practical, effective decision-making. This initiative is not merely a technological solution; it’s a commitment to the future of our oceans, ensuring that they remain vibrant and thriving for generations to come.
Contributions
Providers
Interested in contributing?
Destination Earth is based on a co-design approach, which enables an agile design process and facilitates the identification of user requirements. Therefore, DestinE invites user communities to contribute to the continuous development and improvement of DestinE capabilities through GitHub.
GitHub is a cloud-based repository for software development and version control. It allows developers to collaborate on software projects, as well as to store and manage their code.