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About SAFARI
Earth observation has a great deal of potential to benefit society through activities covered generally under the heading Fisheries and Aquaculture (see article from Platt et al. in The Full Picture, GEO publication, 2007 ). The primary objective of the SAFARI Project is to integrate the activities of selected experts in fisheries and Earth Observation (EO) to accelerate the pace of assimilation of EO into fisheries research and ecosystem-based fisheries management on a world scale. SAFARI will also help to build capacity at the science level and the operational level, and facilitate the application of rapidly evolving satellite technology to fisheries management questions.
Some of the components of SAFARI will include:
1) An international workshop on International Workshop on the Use of Remotely-Sensed Data as an Aid to Fisheries Research and Fisheries Management – Bedford Institute of Oceanography, Canada, 26 – 28 March, 2008
2) Remote-sensing information sessions for the fishing community - First half of 2009
3) Monograph on Applications of Remote Sensing in Fisheries and Aquaculture to be published by the IOCCG - Second half of 2009
4) International Symposium on Remote Sensing and Fisheries - First half of 2010
Various EO initiatives related to fisheries have already been started outside the umbrella of the Group on Earch Observation (GEO), and it will be extremely useful, under GEO Task Number AG-06-02 to coordinate these at the international scale, and add to their value through synergy. Further, the international consensus to follow ecosystem-based management raises the imperative to design and implement a suite of ecological indicators with a view to detecting change in the ocean ecosystem should it occur in response to perturbations, for example by climate change or by overfishing. Such indicators would also be responsive to seasonal and interannual changes in the ecosystem, and thus be of use to fisheries research and management. Because of its high resolution in space and time, and low incremental cost, EO by remote sensing will be of the utmost importance in this regard.
