Abstract
Reliable and up-to-date information about the state of marine resources is essential to support sound management decisions for the protection of ecologically important areas. Conventional fish capture procedures are extremely onerous in terms of human resources, besides being extremely invasive for the ecosystem they are meant to monitor: the capture of many non-targeted organisms can be high and unacceptable. For this reason, the use of capture methods such as trawls are prohibited in Marine Protected Areas. Thus, there is an urgent need to develop accurate and non-invasive methods for mapping the marine ecosystems to establish their condition, extent and geographical location. The urgency of such need is highlighted in the EUSAIR Action Plan and also in the Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda of the BLUEMED Initiative. In this context, the SUSHI-DROP proposal will evaluate the adoption of drones, i.e. unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs) equipped with sensors to monitor physical, chemical and biological features. The UUV technology has evolved over the last few years, from simple demonstrators developed by research institutes to commercial products. Nowadays applications in environmental researches and ecosystems monitoring are emerging, thanks to the capabilities offered by UUV of carrying out researches without interfering with the seabed and at reduced costs, if compared to the use of oceanographic vessels. Within SUSHI-DROP, a customized UUV will be developed and equipped with acoustical and optical technologies in order to implement a non-invasive mean to assess environmental status of habitats, fish stocks population and, in general, to monitor the biodiversity of marine ecosystems. We are planning to assess the accuracy of the optoacoustic surveys in deriving single-species abundance indices (in numbers or weight) for direct input into stock assessments, and to evaluate the benefits brought by these new technologies with respect to the classical procedures based on fish sampling. Moreover, a dedicated open-access database system will be created to collect, maintain and share the scientific data acquired by the UUVs. The final aim is to combine the georeferenced information gathered by the UUVs and the one related to the spatial extent and patchiness of fishing pressures to better understand the sensitivity of the habitats to those pressures and to design and implement more effective marine management plans. The development of such sensitivity analyses is becoming a priority for the preservation of the biodiversity in the Adriatic Sea.
Project details
Unibo Team Leader: Luca De Marchi
Unibo involved Department/s:
Dipartimento di Ingegneria dell'Energia Elettrica e dell'Informazione "Guglielmo Marconi"
Dipartimento di Ingegneria Civile, Chimica, Ambientale e dei Materiali
Dipartimento di Scienze Biologiche, Geologiche e Ambientali
Coordinator:
ALMA MATER STUDIORUM - Università di Bologna(Italy)
Other Participants:
Udruga Za Prirodu, Okoliš I Održivi Razvoj Sunce
(Croatia)
Institute of Oceanography and Fisheries
(Croatia)
Regione Marche
(Italy)
Fisheries Local Action Group Costa Dei Trabocchi
(Italy)
Splitsko-Dalmatinska Županija
(Croatia)
Total Eu Contribution: Euro (EUR) 1.457.620,37
Project Duration in months: 36
Start Date:
01/01/2019
End Date:
31/12/2021
Cordis webpage
Project website
This project contributes to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals of the UN 2030 Agenda.
