Skip to main content
Go to the home page of the European Commission (opens in new window)
English English
CORDIS - EU research results
CORDIS

REDUCING BYCATCH OF THREATENED MEGAFAUNA IN THE EAST CENTRAL ATLANTIC

Project description

Advanced technology to reduce megafauna by-catch in the Eastern Central Atlantic

Quantifying, analysing and comprehending by-catch data from all European fishing fleets is crucial for improving fisheries sustainability and conserving marine megafauna. The EU-funded REDUCE project aims to mitigate marine megafauna by-catch and promote sustainable fishery management in the Eastern Central Atlantic Ocean. The project will employ observer programmes, electronic monitoring and machine learning to obtain high-quality data on marine megafauna by-catch. Utilising fine-scale GPS tracking and predictive habitat maps, it will identify by-catch hot spots, factors driving interactions, and political responsibilities. The project will also evaluate mitigation measures and promote collaborative workshops, training sessions and monitoring events, fostering cooperation among scientists, the fishing industry, civil society and policymakers to reduce by-catch in the region.

Objective

REDUCE will unify stakeholder efforts and utilize an interdisciplinary scientific approach to reduce bycatch of marine megafauna and inform sustainable fishery management in the Eastern Central Atlantic Ocean. The diagnosis and integration of bycatch data across all industrial European fleets in the region, linked with fishing effort and the spatiotemporal distribution of the species, will provide a systematic approach to jointly assess and tackle policy challenges. The expansion and improvement of the observer programmes and the advances in electronic monitoring and automated machine learning systems will enable species-specific and high-resolution data of marine megafauna bycatch. Fine-scale GPS tracking of selected species combined with AIS fishery data in concurrent time will allow understanding key drivers of interactions and infer political responsibilities. New fine-scale tracking data of carefully selected species in the region will allow for a better understanding of their abundance and distribution and post-release mortality. Sightings, fishery catches and tracking data on marine megafauna will be combined to provide a step-changes in predictive habitat mapping approaches to understand overlap and bycatch risk from local to basin-scales. The combination of timeseries of sightings, fishery catches, GPS and GLS tracking and capture-mark-recapture studies, will provide an unprecedented view on megafauna hotspots and the risks and impacts of bycatch, boosting marine spatial planning or pelagic waters. Assessment and testing of mitigation measures will identify key approaches to significantly reduce bycatch in the region. Innovative and efficient data handling, sharing and publishing will establish an integrated approach to the bycatch data community. Capacity and cooperation between science, fishery industry and policymakers bordering Eastern Central Atlantic Ocean will be boosted by joint multi-disciplinary workshops, scientific training and monitoring events

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.

You need to log in or register to use this function

Programme(s)

Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.

Topic(s)

Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.

Funding Scheme

Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.

HORIZON-RIA - HORIZON Research and Innovation Actions

See all projects funded under this funding scheme

Call for proposal

Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.

(opens in new window) HORIZON-CL6-2023-BIODIV-01

See all projects funded under this call

Coordinator

UNIVERSITAT DE BARCELONA
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 2 763 128,75
Address
GRAN VIA DE LES CORTS CATALANES 585
08007 BARCELONA
Spain

See on map

Region
Este Cataluña Barcelona
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
Links
Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

€ 2 763 128,75

Participants (10)

Partners (2)

My booklet 0 0