First acoustic monitoring devices deployed in pan-European STRAITS project by ATU marine scientists

The first acoustic devices to monitor marine mammals and underwater noise levels in European waters were deployed in Turkey and Spain in recent days by ATU’s Dr María Pérez Tadeo and Yaiza Pozo Galván under the EU-funded “Strategic Infrastructure for improved Animal Tracking in European Seas” (STRAITS) project.  The research project will study the movement of sea animals at four strategic locations in Europe in a bid to better understand their biology and ecology, and aid in conservation and management. 

Led by the Loughs Agency in Northern Ireland, the four-year €3.5m project is funded by the Horizon Europe Framework Program and the team is drawn from ten world-leading organisations who together will advance the public’s understanding of aquatic animal movements in Europe and abroad and change the way biodiversity is monitored in European waters. 

Atlantic Technological University (ATU)’s focus will be specifically on the movement of marine mammals led by marine scientist Dr Joanne O’Brien, Principal Investigator and Dr María Pérez Tadeo, postdoctoral researcher, Marine and Freshwater Research Centre (MFRC), ATU Galway. 

Dr María Pérez Tadeo, accompanied by Yaiza Pozo Galván (Erasmus Intern in ATU) travelled to the Strait of Dardanelles last week to set up the equipment and co-ordinate the deployment of the first passive acoustic monitoring devices for the STRAITS project. The research visit to Turkey was funded by the Marine Institute.

“We brought the equipment to Turkey to set it up and it was then deployed in the Straits of Bosphorus and Dardanelles by Dr Aytaç Özgül, Dr Atlan Lok and Dr Evrim Kurtay, researchers from Ege University, who dived to attach it to their moorings. There was a heavy storm over here not long after the dive so we were extremely lucky getting the equipment in the water beforehand, since the weather window was very brief. Equipment was also shipped to Spain and was deployed last Wednesday in the Strait of Gibraltar by Dr Ricardo F Sánchez Leal and his team, researchers from the Spanish Oceanographic Institute (IEO).”

The STRAITS pan-European project sees acoustic telemetry arrays deployed in four major swimways in Europe (see image):
1) the Danish Straits, between the Kattegat Sea and the Baltic Sea;
2) the North Channel in the Celtic Sea; 
3) the Strait of Gibraltar, between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea; 
4) the Strait of Bosphorus and Dardanelles, between the Mediterranean Sea and the Black Sea.

Animal tracking 
The study of animal movements offers one of the best ways to monitor animals from regional to continental or even global scales, and from minutes to decades. Although animal tracking is not new, it is only recently that the technology has enabled the tracking of animals over larger areas and longer timescales. This advancement has yielded key information about the biology and ecology of these animals, but much more knowledge could be gained if efforts to tag and detect animals were performed collaboratively, as part of a network. This is one of the primary goals of STRAITS. 

Researchers at ATU are in charge of assessing underwater noise levels and monitoring marine mammals at the different sites, which will be of great relevance to assess impacts of anthropogenic noise on cetaceans and to comply with EU regulations. Cetaceans, reliant on sound for communication, navigation and foraging, face risks from increasing anthropogenic activities, potentially causing physical damage and behavioural changes. 

STRAITS will leverage ongoing acoustic telemetry tracking projects, expand efforts to connect tracking initiatives from across Europe, develop data management plans and networking to promote synergy, and deliver data to national and international governing bodies. You can find out more about the project here: www.europeantrackingnetwork.org/straits. 

For further information on ATU’s involvement in this project check the MFRC website https://mfrc-atu.ie or follow @MfrcATU, or listen to this ATU Podcast as Dr Joanne O’Brien, Principal Investigator and Dr María Pérez Tadeo, describe the project after its launch in July (2023).  

ENDS

Regina Daly, Atlantic TU Communications 
Tel: +353 (0)91 742826 Mob: +353 (0)879618355
regina.daly@atu.ie  www.atu.ie/news