26 September is World Maritime Day. This is an opportunity to remind ourselves of the importance of the collective efforts needed to protect and sustainably manage our seas and oceans.
Since its creation, IFREMER (Institut Français de Recherche pour l’Exploitation de la Mer) has been at the heart of marine scientific research, striving to gain a better understanding of marine ecosystems and develop solutions for the sustainable management of resources. As part of the Fisheries Information System (SIH), CODRA has signed a framework contract with IFREMER as technical service provider. This observation network develops and deploys tools and methods to better understand the interactions between human activities, fisheries resources and marine ecosystems.
Ifremer’s Missions and the collection of fisheries data
The mission of the Fisheries Information System (SIH) is to organise the acquisition of data on fishery resources, the way they are managed and the ecosystems in which they evolve. Observers collect and enter data into various data collection software packages.
This fisheries data covers:
- Catches at sea: composition of catches (species, size, sex, etc.), fishing gear used, fishing sectors, fishing time, tidal environment (weather, season, location, etc.).
- Landings: quantity by species, value, etc.
- Sales: composition of catches marketed at auction.
- Fishing activity: fishing practices, trades and sectors frequented, socio-economic parameters
- Fish populations: population size and age structures, individual biological parameters such as growth, sexual maturity, sex ratio, etc.
- Ecosystems (nature of the seabed, hydrology, bottom-dwelling populations, etc.)
- Socio-economic parameters,
- and so on.
To carry out its missions, SIH relies on a data centre called Harmonie, which is the repository for all fisheries data. These data share a common reference base: each marine species, each fishing gear, etc. is coded in the same way, enabling the scientific community to interpret the data collected and to model and analyse marine ecosystems in an integrated manner.
Evolution and maintenance of the harmonie project
Today, the SIH Harmonie data centre has more than twenty data collection and processing applications.
CODRA’s missions are:
- Application redesign to improve the user experience,
- Maintaining applications so that they remain fully operational.
The CODRA teams bring their technical and practical knowhow to the project usingse a wide range of technologies, including Angular, Python and Java.
The challenge for CODRA on this project is to meet the needs of the users. This means correcting any issues and making specific developments to enhance the tools, optimise data acquisition, aggregate data and provide clear and concise information.
New collection tools, such as the ichthyometer (a connected instrument for measuring fish length), are being deployed to simplify measurement and send the data directly to computer input software. In addition, IFREMER plans to equip observers with tablets to facilitate their work when they travel to auctions or fishing vessels, for example. These new ways of collecting data are the subject of the latest CODRA developments.
Caroline has been working at the IFREMER site in Plouzané (France) for over 5 years. She is interested in marine species, which she considers essential to protect for present and future generations. As part of the Harmonie project, she is involved in analysing the needs of the end-users, writing the technical specifications for the developers and taking part in the testing phases to make sure that everything works.
Thanks to innovative projects such as Harmonie, IFREMER plays a key role in preserving marine biodiversity, managing fisheries resources and combating the threats posed by pollution and climate change. CODRA is proud to be able to contribute its expertise and help preserve the planet.
