ARCFISH

Description

ARCFISH will develop a pilot Digital Twin of the Ocean (DTO) Platform delivering new data products and services in support of sustainable Arctic Fisheries. These data products and services will be co-designed with stakeholders in the fisheries sector and used to create products such as ecosystem indices that can be applied in fisheries planning and management. 

Available data sources and gaps will be analysed to fulfil user needs and ingest relevant data into the Blue Insight DTO Platform. They include (1) oceanographic data from research vessels, autonomous  mobile platforms, fixed buoys, and ships of opportunity such as e.g., fishing vessels, (2) met-ocean-ice forecasts and reanalysis from models (e.g., from CMEMS and INTAROS), (3) fisheries management data (e.g., fisheries stocks, species) from ICES and national sources, and (4) reference data (e.g., bathymetry, economic zones, AIS data). Based on the stakeholder needs, a use case for sustainable fisheries will be implemented using the ingested data and tools for generating customised products. The use case will address two geographic regions, the west coast of Greenland centred around the rich fishing grounds surrounding Disko Bay, and the region around Iceland, northwards to the Svalbard archipelago and the Barents Sea. 

Using the compiled data and developed tools, a regional database of climate, environmental, and fisheries data will be created and made available through an open data repository to support sustainable Arctic Fisheries. This important asset will contribute to the Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership (SBEP) program by providing new data products that can be utilised in digital twin platforms to support decision-making in fisheries management. The Blue Insight Platform developed by Kongsberg Discovery, Norway, will be part of the Digital Twins of the Ocean (DITTO) program of the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development. As part of DITTO and through engagement with other running Digital Twin projects and initiatives such as EDITO, ILIAD, Blue-Cloud2026 and EOSC, ARCFISH development will follow standards for data exchange and implementation of services and tools in the EU DTO. ARCFISH will prepare training material for using the Blue Insight DTO and organise capacity building events for stakeholders and other SBE projects. Training will be organised in conjunction with project meetings and SBEP seminars. Furthermore, the regional database, developed services and tools, training and promotional material will be promoted through the iAOS portal from INTAROS, a public project website linked to relevant DTO sites, and dedicated social media channels. ARCFISH results will also be promoted through the partners extensive network of Arctic observing and data management, digital technologies, capacity building in ocean literacy, stakeholder interaction and fisheries.