EMODnet Physics supporting Berring Data Collective start-up inspiration
Berring Data Collective (BDC) is a start-up dedicated to ocean observation via collaboration with fishing vessels. Fishing gears such as nets and traps make an ideal platform for compact IoT sensors. When the gears are let down to the bottom and pulled back up with fish, sensors that are along for the ride collect water column profile data. When the net surface data is automatically sent onto ocean data users in near real time.
Fishing for data is a cost-effective and common-sense way to collect ocean data where fishing is already taking place. However, before BDC was founded, a key question was if data was needed in these areas where fishing was taking place. Exhaustive hours were spent looking through regional ocean data portals, or platform specific portals. It was impossible to see everything at once, and to filter platforms and data collection so that only the sub-surface data that fishing vessels could collect was shown. That was until the founders of BDC found EMODnet.
The EMODnet Physics maps was an intuitive and user-friendly method to get a sense of all of the different ocean observation platforms at once, and all over the world. This easy visualization enabled BDC to see that instrumenting fishing would collect data where it was lacking in coastal and shelf seas. Subsequent rigorous analyses of the gaps in observation networks using EMODnet platform data has led to the publication of this peer-reviewed scientific article. The inspiration leading to the insights of this article were directly enabled by the EMODnet Physics map.
Berring Data Collective now contributes to filling the gaps in ocean observation which were noticed thanks to EMODnet Physics. BDC posts real time data collected from fishing onto the Physics map, enabling others to discover the potential of fishing vessels in the context of the multitude of other platforms observing our oceans. EMODnet Physics has worked closely with BDC to develop custom visualization pages in order to best display the data collect opportunities of fishing vessels, even for those not familiar with fishing. In addition, EMODnet works closely with BDC to pass fishing vessel data on to operational data hubs such as Copernicus Marine and the United Nations World Meteorological Organization.
