NorTrack

Context

Adequate management of marine species requires knowledge on their ecology, needs, and the threats they face. Doing so also requires the creation of robust evidence-based methods that are undertaken collaboratively, strategically, and at a sufficient scale. Within this context, acoustic telemetry offers the perfect tool, particularly when used as part of large collaborative networks of infrastructure. NorTrack will leverage ongoing acoustic tracking projects across the Northeast Atlantic (NEA) region of Europe and expand on those to inform species- based biodiversity management.

NorTrack represents a major step towards an operational and permanent European Tracking Network (ETN) to coordinate aquatic animal tracking efforts at a scale that will be usable to make progress on international marine management and planning. Such a network represents a major win for European biodiversity monitoring initiatives, conservation, and policy.

Main objectives

The main objectives of NorTrack are:

1. coordinate the deployment of strategic aquatic tracking infrastructure across the NEA;
2. harmonise data collection methods, sharing platforms and protocols;
3. apply data to address knowledge gaps, identify priority conservation areas, and inform stakeholders and management agencies.

Main activities

NorTrack will achieve these objectives through a strong and dynamic consortium of nine partner institutions from across the NEA region. The collaborative effort will first deploy and maintain six key infrastructures to track marine fishes, followed by a coordinated fish tagging effort, ensuring high quantity and quality of detections of a wide range of vulnerable and commercially sensitive species. The project will also develop an open database for archiving and accessing animal tracking data, building on current best practices at national, EU, and international levels.

Stakeholder engagement and collaboration are at the heart of the project, with continuous identification and engagement planned throughout. Results will be analysed and disseminated to the scientific community, stakeholders, policy makers, and the public via publications, a project website, data visualisation, policy briefs, public meetings, online webinars, symposiums and workshops, and participation in international and national conferences. NorTrack will report on how knowledge and data produced within the project can be integrated in NEA policy to improve conservation and management of studied species.