The collaborative integration of sensors with fishing can fill some of the most pressing gaps in the sustained ocean monitoring. Fishing vessels operate exactly where autonomous platforms cannot, leading to a surprising lack of data for fishermen close to shore compared with the open ocean. The mission of the Berring Data Collective (BDC) is to collect high-quality, cost-effective ocean data and connect traditionally divergent users of the ocean space.
The BDC is currently collecting data from an emerging global network of vessels, 81 of which are fishing for data, also in the Arctic. The use of sensors on fishing nets provides high-quality, low-cost subsurface oceanographic data in coastal ocean regions. The data is used for weather forecasting and climate monitoring, predicting ocean changes, improving fisheries science, and avoiding by-catches by understanding the ocean conditions preferred by different species.
The Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute's collaboration with the BDC has led to the ingestion of about 18,000 data profiles into the EMODnet Physics databases with the support of EMODnet Ingestion. By now, the data collected by the BDC from European waters and ranging as far as Alaska are already flowing to EMODnet in near-real time!
