SBEP - Digital Twin of the Ocean for Arctic Fisheries

Fisheries play a key role in the economy in many Arctic countries. With climate change affecting marine ecosystems and enabling accessibility of larger ocean areas in the region, there is a strong need for improved access to data and information tailored to the fisheries industry and the public sector monitoring and regulating Arctic Fisheries. Relevant data is available from many different sources, but efficient delivery chains for compiling, integrating, and analysing these in a common system is lacking. ARCFISH will therefore 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. The ARCFISH project will focus on two key regions for Arctic fisheries: (1) Western Greenland, centred around Disko Bay, and (2) region around Iceland, northwards to the Svalbard archipelago and the Barents Sea. The two study sites were also selected for their relevance to marine ecosystems and the effect of climate change on resource utilisation and management. The Greenland site, particularly the southwestern area around Disko Bay, is a very important area for marine biodiversity and fisheries, and the Greenland economy is highly dependent on the sea and its resources. In Iceland, marine fisheries are a major component of the country’s economy and culture. The Icelandic fisheries sector represents one of the most high-tech and sophisticated supply chains, with data collected at every step of the process. Working closely with stakeholders in these regions, the partners will develop data pipelines that will provide customised data products for sustainable fisheries in the ARCFISH DTO.

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, such as (1) oceanographic data from research vessels, autonomous mobile platforms, fixed buoys, and ships of opportunity, (2) met-ocean-ice forecasts and reanalysis from models, (3) fisheries management data (e.g., fisheries stocks, species), and (4) reference data (e.g., bathymetry, economic zones, AIS data). A use case for sustainable fisheries will be implemented using the ingested data and tools for generating customised products for 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. The Blue Insight Platform developed by Kongsberg Discovery, Norway, will be part of the Digital Twins of the Ocean program of the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development. NERSC and international partners will develop data products and services that will be integrated into Blue Insight. The project will prepare training material and organise capacity building events for stakeholders and other SBEP projects. The regional database, developed services and tools, training and promotional material will be promoted through the iAOS portal operated by NERSC, a public project website, and dedicated social media channels.