Moninya Roughan⁴, Julie Jakoboski¹, Cooper Van Vranken², João De Souza¹, John  Radford³

¹Metocean Solutions (Meteorological Service Of New Zealand), , New Zealand, ²Ocean Data Network, Portland, USA, ³ZebraTech, Ltd., Nelson, New Zealand, ⁴University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia

In Australia and abroad, coastal and shelf regions of the ocean are critical to stakeholders including fisheries, tourism, aquaculture, defence and recreation.  These regions are highly variable, yet near real-time, subsurface ocean observations within them are sparse.  They are also where most fishing activity occurs, providing an opportunity to collect oceanographic measurements by collaborating with fishers to deploy temperature sensors on fishing gear.  Resulting observations can improve the accuracy of operational forecasts where these are most needed and can be correlated with catch to maximise fishing efficiency.

In New Zealand, the Moana Project’s Mangōpare programme has deployed more than 200 temperature and pressure sensors on vessels New Zealand-wide. The data pathway is fully automatic, providing near real-time temperature and depth measurements to hydrodynamic ocean models with no human intervention after sensor install. Measurements are automatically provided back to the vessel that obtained them, ensuring the vessel owner/crew benefit from their data collection efforts. Data are also assimilated into ocean models in near real-time, improving operational forecasts. In Australia, IMOS and FRDC have partnered with UNSW to deploy these sensors on 20 vessels in southeastern Australia as part of a new pilot programme. These sensors are also being deployed by both scientific and fishing industry-based initiatives in Europe and the USA, facilitated by Ocean Data Network.

These programmes provide a robust, cost-effective approach to observing our coastal oceans, allowing us to better understand our fisheries and improve ocean model accuracy in regions that strongly impact the global blue economy.  Collaborative work between sectors benefits the fishing sector, science community, and broader ocean community. Programme decisions are made jointly with the fishing sector, providing a knowledge and innovation pathway connecting the science and fishing communities.

Biography:

Dr Julie Jakoboski is an oceanographer at MetOcean based in Raglan, New Zealand, where her focus is on obtaining ocean observations for Aotearoa’s public use and assimilation into ocean models as part of the Moana Project’s Te Tiro Moana (“Eyes on the Ocean”).

As the Team Lead of Te Tiro Moana, Julie is directing the deployment of the Mangōpare temperature and depth sensors, and with the goal of obtaining measurements from New Zealand’s oceans to better inform the public on changing ocean temperatures.