The UK will install the world’s largest network of underwater game monitoring systems in ten overseas territories over the next few months to measure the success of its ocean conservation efforts, the government said on Friday.
A network of cameras on carbon fiber sticks will monitor more than 4 million square miles of ocean in the largest enterprise of its kind by any national government. The UK’s Office of Foreign Affairs, Commonwealth and Development has said the project will cost £ 2 million, or almost $ 3 million, and will take four years.
“Literally every breath we catch comes from the oceans. It’s the largest habitat on our planet,” said Jessica Meeuwig, a professor of marine science at the University of Western Australia and co-founder of Blue Abacus, an ocean fish monitor. , said. company that will train people in the areas to collect the marine data. “Yet we know very little about our oceans, especially if you move away from shallow coral reef systems to what I like to call the ‘big blue’.”
The project aims to bridge the knowledge gap by never collecting previously recorded information on what is happening in parts of the ocean far from the shore, where it was previously difficult to monitor the population size and density of game. and to record. It will take place around British overseas territories, including the Cayman Islands, St Helena and Anguilla.
The camera network builds on the global 30 by 30 initiative, in which countries around the world, including the US, UK and Canada, are committed to conserving at least 30 percent of the world’s oceans by 2030. and other special ocean zones where humans are not allowed to fish – an attempt to grow the population of marine wildlife.
“This is very exciting because we are going to start building or erecting large marine parks to stem and reverse these downward trends in so many of the species that inhabit the largest place on earth,” Meeuwig said. “But how do we count it?”
The project uses Baited Remote Underwater Video Systems, or BRUVS, a technology first adopted by Meeuwig’s team of scientists in Australia to film and photograph wild marine life far from the coast of the areas.
The BRUVS system suspends several cameras mounted on carbon fiber frames 10 meters underwater in deep ocean areas. Teams can collect up to 100 samples in a certain area at sea for up to seven to ten days to get a snapshot of what the fish and game populations look like at a given time.
Over time, teams can compare the size and numbers of wildlife from different sample collections to determine whether to boost fish and marine population populations, such as 30 by 30.
The project is backed by the British government, which is hoping to hear which of the ocean conservation efforts are bearing fruit, or whether it should invest more in protecting marine wildlife.
“Leading technologies, such as these cameras, are crucial in our crusade against climate change,” Prime Minister Boris Johnson said in a statement. “Our marine experts are world leaders in protecting our oceans and the multitude of species that live in them.”
The BRUVS designed by Meeuwig’s team are also innovative pieces of technology for governments to invest in. Instead of sending teams of specialists to collect the data at sea, scientists can easily train residents of the areas to use the system.
“That’s the wonderful thing about it: you do not have to be a highly technical electrical specialist or anything to use our equipment,” Meeuwig said. “What we want is the local ability to identify what questions they want answered and then go ask.”
This is particularly important because the UK’s conservation efforts are particularly important for local and coastal economies in its overseas territories.
“We do not have healthy, blue economies. Our oceans do not support us economically when it goes downhill, do we? Therefore, we must make sure that every jurisdiction in the world has the evidence that they have to make informed decisions.” About its coastal economy , said Meeuwig.
Seagull said she was hopeful the UK would push the approval of her technology to force other governments worldwide, such as those of the US and Canada, to invest in similar efforts.
“I saw the oceans die in front of me from when I got my first diving ticket at the age of 15,” said Meeuwig. “So we need to do better.
“And we’re making some progress with coral reefs, and this is where people can go snorkeling, they can go diving,” she added. “But what do we do to the other 70 percent of the planet that is blue?”