The project’s purpose is to introduce new low trophic species, products and processes in marine aquaculture value chains across the Atlantic. Low trophic species are those organisms low on the food chain as sea urchins or mussels. The five chosen value chains of AquaVitaeinclude macroalgae, Integrated Multi-Trophic Aquaculture (IMTA), echinoderm species (e.g. sea urchins), shellfish and finfish. IMTA is a process that farms several species together using waste from one species as feed for another. One of the main expected results of the project would be the creation of real and meaningful collaborative links between researchers, industry and other aquaculture stakeholders in the Atlantic area. AquaVitae will contribute to the Belém Statement, the joint Declaration on Atlantic Ocean Research and Innovation Cooperation between the European Union, Brazil, and South Africa through: - Setting up a network for knowledge and research exchange through the Atlantic. - Sustainable use of marine resources with a circular economy approach. - Better monitoring of aquaculture activities through new and emerging technologies. - Contributing to the well-being of aquaculture communities. - Enhancing citizen engagement through training and outreach activities. - Setting up student exchanges and industrial apprenticeships.

The technologies developed will expand our knowledge of the ocean’s interconnected systems and provide tangible benefits to the industries that rely on them, such as fisheries and aquaculture. The data generated will also support conservation initiatives and provide vital information to policy makers. The future impact of these valuable technologies relies on their accessibility. Therefore, TechOceanS technology pilots will be low-cost and place minimal demands on existing infrastructure, allowing them to be made available for use by all countries regardless of resources. TechOceanS will also work with the IOC-UNESCO to develop “ocean best practices” standards for training and monitoring of metrology and ocean systems.

In integrated multi-trophic aquaculture (IMTA), multiple aquatic species from different trophic levels are farmed together. Thus, waste from one species can be used as input (fertiliser and food) for another species. The EU-funded ASTRAL project will develop IMTA production chains for the Atlantic markets. Focusing on a regional challenge-based perspective, it will bring together labs in Ireland and Scotland (open offshore labs), South Africa (flow-through inshore) and Brazil (recirculation inshore) as well as Argentina (prospective IMTA lab). The aim is to increase circularity by as much as 60 % compared to monoculture baseline aquaculture and to boost revenue diversification for aquaculture producers. ASTRAL will share, integrate, and co-generate knowledge, technology and best practices fostering a collaborative ecosystem along the Atlantic.

The indiSeaS project is co-funded by the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC), the European Network of Excellence Euroceans, “'Institut de recherche pour le développement (IRD)” and the European project on Marine Ecosystem Evolution in a Changing Environment (MEECE). It is a multi-institutes collaborative effort. Scientific experts on ecosystems all over world calculate indicators and provide background information. The IndiSeas project aims at "Evaluating the status of marine ecosystems in a changing world”, using a set of different types of indicators to reflect the effects of multiple drivers on the states and trends of marine exploited ecosystems. It focuses on the effects of fishing, use of ecology, biodiversity, as well as climate and socio-economic indicators on world's marine ecosystems health. The objectives are to review IndiSeas datasets, present preliminary results to regional experts, discuss methods to be developed in each of the six task groups, establish work and publication plans for the future. Expertise from over 70 scientists, 49 research institutes and 36 countries.

The International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas is an inter-governmental fishery organization responsible for the conservation of tunas and tuna-like species in the Atlantic Ocean and its adjacent seas. ICCAT compiles fishery statistics from its members and from all entities fishing for these species in the Atlantic Ocean, coordinates research, including stock assessment, on behalf of its members, develops scientific-based management advice, provides a mechanism for Contracting Parties to agree on management measures, and produces relevant publications. Science underpins the management decisions made by ICCAT. Much of the information available on this site relates to scientific data, reports of scientific meetings and to scientific articles.

The Sea Around Us is a research initiative at The University of British Columbia (located at the Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries, formerly Fisheries Centre) that assesses the impact of fisheries on the marine ecosystems of the world, and offers mitigating solutions to a range of stakeholders. The Sea Around Us was initiated in collaboration with The Pew Charitable Trusts in 1999, and in 2014, the Sea Around Us also began a collaboration with The Paul G. Allen Family Foundation to provide African and Asian countries with more accurate and comprehensive fisheries data. It provides data and analyses through View Data, articles in peer-reviewed journals, and other media (News). We regularly update our products at the scale of countries’ Exclusive Economic Zones, Large Marine Ecosystems, the High Seas and other spatial scales, and as global maps and summaries. It emphasises catch time series starting in 1950, and related series (e.g., landed value and catch by flag state, fishing sector and catch type), and fisheries-related information on every maritime country (e.g., government subsidies, marine biodiversity). Information is also offered on sub-projects, e.g., the historic expansion of fisheries, the performance of Regional Fisheries Management Organizations, or the likely impact of climate change on fisheries. The information and data presented on this website is freely available to any user, granted that its source is acknowledged. We are aware that this information may be incomplete. Please let us know about this via the feedback options available on this website.

The European Tracking Network (ETN) aims at bringing together marine researchers based in Europe that use aquatic biotelemetry as a tool. The main goals of the network are the promotion of transboundary cooperation, the establishment of a pan-European aquatic telemetry infrastructure network, improved data sharing through a central data portal and enhanced funding opportunities. ETN is co-coordinated by IMAR/University of the Azores and the Canadian Ocean Tracking Network (OTN) initiative. ETN is a partner node of OTN. The central data platform is hosted by the Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ) and provides three key services to the users. 1) Data and metadata are stored centrally at a PostgreSQL database. To facilitate the data entry and data management for the users, a web application was developed in PHP using Symfony framework. 2) A data explorer is available to visualize the data. Datasets can be filtered based on area, species or time frame. In addition, detection data can be linked to other data types ( (e.g. moon index and tides) and several plot options are available. 3) In the R-studio environment, more detailed analyses can be performed.

Every year, millions of tons of plastic enter the oceans, of which the majority spills out from rivers. A portion of this plastic travels to ocean garbage patches, where it gets caught in a vortex of circulating currents alongside plastic from other sources (e.g. offshore fishing activities). If no action is taken, plastic will increasingly impact our ecosystems, health, and economies. The Ocean Cleanup is a non-profit organization developing and scaling technologies to rid the oceans of plastic. To achieve this objective, we have to work on a combination of closing the sources of plastic pollution and cleaning up what has already accumulated in the ocean and doesn’t go away by itself. This goal means we plan to put ourselves out of business – once we have completed this project, our work is done. To rid the oceans of plastic, we need not only to clean up what is already out there but also stop new plastic from entering the ocean – we need to close the tap. Working together with government leaders, individuals, and private corporations, our goal is to tackle these 1000 most polluting rivers all over the world Every single year, marine plastic costs the economy (6 to 19) billions of dollars – impacting tourism, fisheries and aquaculture, and (governmental) cleanups. And that doesn’t include the impact on our health and on the marine ecosystem. Intercepting plastic in rivers is much more cost-effective than dealing with the consequences downstream.

NAUTILOS, a Horizon 2020 Innovation Action project funded under EU’s the Future of Seas and Oceans Flagship Initiative, aims to fill in marine observation and modelling gaps for biogeochemical, biological and deep ocean physics essential ocean variables and micro-/nano-plastics, by developing a new generation of cost-effective sensors and samplers, their integration within observing platforms and deployment in large-scale demonstrations in European seas. The principles underlying NAUTILOS are those of the development, integration, validation and demonstration of new cutting-edge technologies with regards to sensors, interoperability and embedding skills. The development is always guided by the objectives of scalability, modularity, cost-effectiveness, and open-source availability of software products produced. Bringing together 21 entities from 11 European countries with multidisciplinary expertise, NAUTILOS has the fundamental aim to complement and expand current European observation tools and services, to obtain a collection of data at a much higher spatial resolution, temporal regularity and length than currently available at the European scale, and to further enable and democratize the monitoring of the marine environment to both traditional and non-traditional data users.

SEAPOP (SEAbird POPulations) is a long-term monitoring and mapping programme for Norwegian seabirds that was established in 2005. The programme covers seabird populations in Norway, Svalbard and adjacent sea areas, and will provide and maintain base-line knowledge of seabirds for an improved management of this marine environment. The data analyses aim to develop further models of seabird distribution and population dynamics using different environmental parameters, and to explore the degree of covariation across different sites and species. This knowledge is urgently needed to distinguish human influences from those caused by natural variation.