The UK launches world’s largest video-based monitoring programme of open ocean wildlife

Prof Jessica Meeuwig| 03 April 2021

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Photo credit: M. Theiss, Nat Geo image collection

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HIGHLIGHTS

Professor Jessica Meeuwig is working with the UK Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office and Cefas to roll out the Global Ocean Wildlife Analysis Network. The network will use midwater BRUVS to document the status of ocean wildlife across 10 Overseas Territories. This £2 million initiative is part of the Blue Belt programme and will support evidence-based decision making on ocean management.

In support of this initiative, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said “The marine wildlife living along the coastlines of our Overseas Territories is some of the most spectacular in the world and we must do more to protect it.” The UK is a founding government of protecting 30% of the world’s oceans by 2030.

Project partner Blue Abacus, based in Perth, Western Australia, has pioneered the development of cutting-edge carbon fibre BRUVS. The world’s oceans are in dire straits, and Meeuwig said she didn’t want to suggest otherwise. But the ability to gather more information can only be a good thing. The project is intended to track the health of sharks, turtles and sea snakes that live in the high seas.

Prof Meeuwig said, “The data that will be collected through this programme is going to be absolutely fundamental to making well-informed decisions based on evidence to better manage our ocean wildlife and to support our blue economies.”

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BRUVS

The UK will pioneer the world’s largest ocean wildlife monitoring system to help protect life below water as part of the UK Government Blue Belt programme. BRUVS will be deployed across 10 of the U.K.’s overseas territories