Few near-real-time, in-situ observations are currently available in coastal/shelf regions globally. Yet these regions support the majority of our fisheries and blue economy, and are where oceans are changing most rapidly. To address this knowledge gap, a fit-for-purpose programme was developed to deploy temperature and depth sensors on commercial fishing vessels as part of the Moana Project.
A low-cost sensor, called Mangōpare, was developed by Zebra-Tech, Ltd and is installed on more than 100 commercial fishing, research, and education vessels around New Zealand to improve coverage of near-real-time subsurface ocean temperature observations. The sensor, data offload, and data pathway are fully automatic, from sensor to hydrodynamic model via the cloud. While full scale roll-out has started in New Zealand, sensor trials are currently underway in Australia, through UNSW, and in the North Sea, Greenland, and United States through the Berring Data Collective and Ocean Data Network, based respectively in Denmark and United States.
In each region, programme success is dependent upon stakeholder (commercial fisher, government, indigenous, research, non-profit, community) involvement in obtaining oceanographic observations, providing a critical connection between sectors in ocean research, sustainability, and policy. This collaborative approach to ocean observation has the potential to revolutionize coastal ocean observation.