Author: Cecile Dargentolle

From a stakeholder workshop, to a scientific conference, and test in the field, the team at AZTI has done outstanding achievements in the last weeks. 

June was a significant month for the MarineGuardian team in the Bay of Biscay. Within the space of a few weeks, AZTI was at the centre of three distinct but complementary moments: a joint stakeholder workshop, an international scientific conference and tests in the field of the solutions they are advancing. Together, they offer a snapshot of what it looks like when research, engagement, and knowledge-sharing all happen at once. 

Three projects in one room filled with discussions: the first Bay of Biscay workshop

At the beginning of June 2026,  AZTI’s  hosted a joint stakeholder workshop at their headquarters in Derio bringing together three European research projects, MarineGuardian, Infinifish, and OptiFish, alongside researchers, industry representatives, technology developers, and policymakers. 

The event was supported by SINTEF Ocean and Cefas, with SINTEF having provided dedicated training the day before to help facilitate the session. That preparation matters: structured stakeholder engagement is important to get as precise information as possible.

For MarineGuardian, this workshop corresponds to the Bay of Biscay area within WP1, the work package dedicated to understanding barriers and drivers of technology adoption across different fisheries contexts. The Bay of Biscay brings its own specific dynamics: a diverse fleet, a strong tradition of coastal fishing communities, and a regulatory environment shaped by both European and regional frameworks. 

The goal of the joint session was to present and assess solutions that reduce the environmental impacts of fisheries, while strengthening the connections between science, policy, and industry needed to support climate adaptation and more efficient fisheries management.

The three projects approach these challenges from complementary angles. Infinifish focuses on climate-resilient and energy-efficient fisheries. OptiFish works on catch monitoring, transparency, and AI-based control systems. MarineGuardian develops solutions to reduce environmental impacts and protect marine ecosystems. Bringing their stakeholder communities together, even for a single day, created space for dialogue that would not have happened otherwise. 

Among those joining the discussion were producer organisations OPEGUI, Opescaya, and OPPAO, as well as ZUNIBAL, CEIP Blas de Lezo, SILECMAR, and ILVO. The diversity of participants reflected the ambition of the session: innovation that responds to real operational needs can only be designed with the people who face those needs every day.

BYGUARD at ISOBAY: from tool advancement to conversation

A week later, from 16 to 18 June, the international ISOBAY conference took place in Donostia-San Sebastián, one of the key scientific gatherings focused on the Bay of Biscay ecosystem. 

AZTI researcher Isabel García Barón presented BYGUARD, a spatio-temporal bycatch reduction tool developed within MarineGuardian. BYGUARD is designed as a multi-taxa tool, meaning it can help identify when and where different vulnerable species are most at risk of incidental capture, giving fishers and managers actionable, spatially explicit information to reduce bycatch across a range of species groups. 

Presenting this work at ISOBAY was an important step: moving a tool from internal development into the scientific community, opening it to scrutiny, feedback, and wider visibility.

Testing at sea: seabird bycatch mitigation 

In between the workshop and the conference, the AZTI team was also at sea. Between June 9^th and 13^th, the first sea trials of a prototype seabird bycatch mitigation system were conducted in the Bay of Biscay aboard the RV Emma Bardán, a research vessel owned by the Spanish General Secretariat for Fisheries. The system works by preventing seabirds from approaching and diving near trawl gear during hauling, using a water curtain and directed jet as both a visual and physical deterrent in the critical zones around the gear. Trials ran alongside a broader research campaign on trawl selectivity, making efficient use of available sea time. The results from this first prototype will feed directly into further development and future demonstration phases within MarineGuardian. 

Laying the groundwork for what comes next 

A stakeholder workshop, a scientific conference, and sea trials, all within the same two-weeks window. That is not a coincidence. It reflects the ambition of how MarineGuardian operates: tools being tested on the water, results being shared with the scientific community, and stakeholders being brought into the conversation at every step. 

The Bay of Biscay is one of the most complex fisheries environments in Europe. The work happening there, in workshops, at conference podiums, and on the water is exactly the kind of sustained, multi-level engagement that turns research into practice. 

From 16–18 June 2026, MarineGuardian participated in the annual meeting of the ICES Working Group on Innovative Fishing Gear (WGING) in Rome, Italy. Chaired by Julia Calderwood (Marine Institute, Ireland) and Antonello Sala (Italian National Research Council, CNR), the meeting brought together 27 experts from 20 organisations across 11 countries to advance work on innovative fishing technologies and better understand the factors influencing their adoption across fisheries.

Representing MarineGuardian, Caecilia Managò, Work Package Lead for Impact Maximisation, contributed to discussions on stakeholder engagement, innovation uptake, and the barriers and incentives affecting the implementation of innovative fishing solutions.

A key focus of the meeting was the continued development of the ICES Gear Innovations Catalogue, a resource designed to document and assess innovative fishing gears and technologies. The catalogue aims to support evidence-based decision-making by providing information on gear performance, technological readiness, environmental benefits and implementation challenges.

MarineGuardian contributed to discussions on the development of the PESTEL framework, which examines the political, economic, social, technological, environmental and legal factors that influence innovation uptake. Drawing on stakeholder engagement activities delivered through the project, Caecilia shared experiences from participatory workshops, such as the recent joint Gear to Governance Workshop, and innovative engagement approaches, i.e. a PESTEL Serious Game, that help identify the real-world conditions for successful adoption of fisheries innovations.

These discussions are particularly relevant for MarineGuardian, which is further developing and demonstrating 44 innovative solutions to reduce bycatch, improve selectivity and support more sustainable fisheries. As the ICES Gear Innovations Catalogue continues to evolve, it presents an important opportunity to showcase these solutions, making information on their performance, maturity and implementation potential accessible to fisheries managers, policymakers, researchers and industry stakeholders.

A recurring theme throughout the meeting was that many innovative fishing technologies are already technically ready for use, yet their uptake is often limited by economic, social and regulatory factors rather than technological barriers. Understanding and addressing these challenges is essential for accelerating the transition towards more sustainable and resilient fisheries.

MarineGuardian will continue contributing to WGING activities and supporting efforts to strengthen the evidence base around innovation uptake. Through its work on stakeholder engagement, innovation transfer and the development of 44 practical solutions, the project is helping bridge the gap between promising technologies and their successful implementation at sea.

Reflections from the MarineGuardian stakeholder workshop in Myre, Northern Norway 

At the beginning of June 2026, fishers, regulators, technology providers, and researchers from across Northern Norway gathered in Myre for a stakeholder workshop that brought together perspectives from both the MarineGuardian and Infinifish projects. The agenda covered automatic catch registration, onboard sensors, and machine vision systems capable of measuring and grading fish at sea. But the conversation that emerged went much further. 

The central question the group was asked to explore: What would it take for fisheries technologies to be fully implemented across the fleet by 2040? 

Working backwards from the future 

To structure the discussion, participants worked through a backcasting exercise, starting from a shared vision of full technology adoption and tracing back the conditions that would need to be in place to get there. Eight drivers framed the analysis: regulations, markets, technology, research, industry, climate change, access to fishing areas, and social dynamics. 

The exercise was facilitated by SINTEF Ocean’s Rachel Haug Fossback whose work on stakeholder engagement and technology adoption methodologies has shaped the approach taken throughout the MarineGuardian project; and Norwegian Directorate of Fisheries’ Pia Jonsson, who’s part of the external advisory group of the project.  

Trust as a system requirement 

If one theme defined the workshop, it was trust and the recognition that it cannot be engineered into a sensor. 

Participants were clear: reliable data is not simply a matter of installing the right equipment. It requires knowing that all catch passes through the system, that the data cannot be manipulated, and that every actor in the chain, from fisher to buyer, is compensated correctly for what is actually landed. Trust is not a technical specification. It has to be designed into the entire system, from the vessel to the database to the regulatory framework. 

This raised immediate questions about the role of Norway’s Metrology Service (Justervesenet), in a future where measurements are increasingly made by algorithms rather than certified weighing equipment. How these technologies should be independently tested, verified, and formally recognised remains an open and important question for regulators and technology developers alike. 

Documentation at sea and the landing obligation 

A related discussion focused on the landing obligation and what accurate at-sea documentation could mean for existing management and control systems. If catches can be reliably recorded at the point of capture, the implications for reporting, verification, and compliance are significant. But so are the evidentiary requirements: what data will be accepted, by whom, and under what conditions? 

These are not purely technical questions. They require regulatory clarity, institutional readiness, and again trust between the parties involved. 

Social dynamics as a driver in their own right 

Perhaps the most important outcome of the workshop was the explicit recognition of social dynamics as a standalone driver of technology adoption, not a soft consideration to be addressed after the technical work is done, but a structural factor that shapes whether innovation takes root at all. 

Participants highlighted that adoption depends on collaboration, peer learning, perceptions of fairness, quality of life at sea, and confidence that new systems will benefit those using them. Incentives were repeatedly raised as more effective than mandates: research quotas, reduced reporting burdens, and practical operational benefits were seen as far stronger drivers of uptake than regulatory requirements alone.

Why these conversations matter 

The technologies being developed within MarineGuardian are maturing. Pilots are running. Data is being collected. But the path from trials to practice runs through questions that no algorithm can answer on its own. 

Who verifies the data? Who owns it? Who benefits? Who is asked to change, and what do they get in return? 

The workshop in Myre did not resolve these questions. It was not designed to. Its value lay in bringing the right people into the same room and making space for the harder conversations that technical development alone cannot have. That is precisely what stakeholder engagement in MarineGuardian is for. 

From the 26^th to the 28^th of May, the MarineGuardian consortium came together in Bilbao, Spain, for its first annual meeting. It was three days full of presentations, discussions, collaborative work sessions and shared meals that marked an important milestone in the life of the project. Around 50 participants gathered to take evaluate the progress, align on next steps, and strengthen the connections to make this project work.

Day 1: Overview of the technical progress and socio-economic and ecologic assessment

The first day opened with a deep dive into the technical solutions being developed across the project. Partners from WP2 presented advances on three of our key exploitable results: BycatchShield, CatchSelect and EcoGear, designed to reduce unwanted catches and seabed impacts in Atlantic fisheries. We then continued with WP3, where the focus shifted to decision-support tools: EcoGuide, AI Decide and CatchAdvisor, each aimed at giving fishermen smarter, data-driven operational support.

The afternoon brought these technical advances into a broader analytical frame, with the WP4 team walking the consortium through the socio-economic and environmental analysis that will be used to evaluate the solutions. The WP6 coordination wrapped up the day with the overview of the next steps and milestones.

The day closed on a high note, a gathering aboard a boat on the river, followed by a walk through the city of Bilbao, where the conversations from the meeting room continued in a more relaxed setting.

Day 2: Stakeholder engagement, impact and serious games

The second day opened with stakeholder engagement work package (WP1), presenting the methodology and progress being made across the project’s case study areas. This was followed by the live test of a serious game developed for MarineGuardian designed to capture and increase players’ knowledge of the barriers and opportunities for adoption of the project’s solutions.

Right after, the impact work package was presented focusing on the mechanisms in place to ensure that MarineGuardian’s results reach the right audiences and generate lasting change. Partners then worked together on the potential datasets that will be produced and took the first concrete steps toward planning the exploitation of project results.

The afternoon hosted the first test of the PESTEL serious game developed in collaboration with SINTEF, ICES and House of Knowledge; a structured analysis of the political, economic, social, technological, environmental and legal dimensions for MarineGuardian solution’s adoption, tested with the consortium before being improved and played more widely in workshops and international events throughout the project. A consortium dinner concluded this interactive day.

Day 3: External Advisory Group feedback, and break-out sessions

The final day opened with feedback from MarineGuardian’s External Advisory Group, whose expertise and advices help the consortium sharpen its direction for the coming years. This was followed by a presentation from Gianluca Ristori Ramos, an ECOP from University of Barcelona, who developped HOOC, an integrated app designed to centralise all the data flows small-scale fishers need to make better operational decisions, which won the AAORIA ECOP Hackathon in April 2026; and is gathering data from the MarineGuardian solutions.

The meeting concluded with targeted breakout sessions, allowing partners to work through specific planning questions that required focused bilateral or small-group discussions. From specific tasks, to planning of workshops, and discussions around future publications, this session allowed the project to take important decisions for the work planned for next year.

After three intense and productive days, the consortium is now ready to start the second year of work in the project, confident in the next steps that have to happen. This next activities will start soon with multiple stakeholder workshops planned throughout the summer as well as sea trials in 3 different case studies.

The last two weeks have been packed for MarineGuardian with 2 events attended. One consistent message was delivered through both of them: pathways to impact are the actual focus and challenge.

Setting the scene: Riding the Wave, Ammochostos, Cyprus

The journey started on 11–12 May 2026 in Aya Napa, Cyprus, at Riding the Wave: Advancing the EU Ocean Pact through Science, Innovation and Cooperation, the flagship conference of the Cyprus EU Presidency bringing together ocean science, policy and innovation communities.

MarineGuardian’s impact officer and WP5 leader, Caecilia Manago from ICES attended the conference, where one remark stood out as particularly resonant. Zacharias Siokouros, CEO of the Cyprus Marine and Maritime Institute (CMMI), stated that “pathways to impact are the actual focus and challenge.”

For a project like ours, built around turning fisheries research into real-world adoption, facing the days to days challenges connected to this step, it was the right room to be in and the right conversation to be having.

Sharing the stage the European Maritime Days 2026

At the European Commission Stand: The FishScanner accessible up close

The following week, the MarineGuardian team went to the #EMD2026 in Limassol, where our coordinator Jónas Viðarsson, from Matís presented at the European Commission stand on the morning of May 21st.

At the centre of the presentation: a small commercial version of the FishScanner, a camera system designed to operate inside the trawl net, identifying and sizing catch in real time before it reaches the codend. The technology is being advanced in collaboration with Marine and Freshwater Research Institute of Iceland and Star-Oddi, and represents one of the core solutions MarineGuardian is developing toward commercial adoption.

MarineGuardian shared the stand with two other EU projects, CoastalPro and RHE-MEDIATION creating an informal but productive space for cross-project exchange and connection with a wide range of visitors.

The FishScanner attracted genuine interest from attendees, reflecting a growing appetite among fisheries stakeholders for practical, on-vessel technological solutions.

The Workshop – Gear to Governance: Sustainable fish value chains

On the afternoon of May 22nd, the Gear to Governance: Sustainable Fish Value Chain workshop brought together approximately 50 participants for one of the most hands-on sessions of the programme.

Led by Caecilia Manago, the workshop opened with short presentations from four EU research projects, MarineGuardian, ECO-CATCH, DecarbonyT and Mr.GoodFish3.0, each presenting a targeted solution to a specific challenge in sustainable fisheries. Participants then moved into a PESTEL carousel, rotating through stations and collectively mapping the political, economic, social, technological, environmental and legal factors that could determine whether each solution achieves real-world adoption.

The format worked beyond our hopes: discussions were lively, substantive and grounded in the real-world challenges.

The four solutions discussed, all in regard with the technical measure regulation, were brough by each project:

• Alternative fishing fishing gears transition, from trawl to pot and from Gillnets to traps by ECO-CATCH
• Smartrawl – an AI driven selective sorting fishing gear, advanced by Heriot-Watt University in MarineGuardian
• Optimised fishing trawl leading to up to 20% fuel savings from the DecarbonyT project
• The Mr.Goodfish app to increase consumer awareness, from Mr. Goodfish 3.0

The technical solutions presented by MarineGuardian and ECO-CATCH received particularly positive responses, attendees expressed genuine confidence that these innovations have the potential to make a tangible difference in fishing practice.

At the same time, the room kept thinking: a recurring theme across the PESTEL discussions was the economic reality facing different fleet segments and in particular the situation of small-scale fishers.

 However promising a technology may be, the consensus was clear: if the cost of transition falls entirely on the fisher, adoption will remain limited. Small-scale fishing operations, already under significant economic pressure, cannot be expected to absorb the investment required by many of the innovations currently being developed and tested.

It is a tension that sits at the heart of the EU’s ambitions for sustainable fisheries and one that MarineGuardian, through its stakeholder engagement methodology, is working to surface, document and address.

Looking ahead

The conversations started in Aya Napa and continued in Limassol will feed directly into the ongoing work of the project. The insights gathered from stakeholders, including the barriers identified through the PESTEL exercise, will contribute to the project evidence base. These finding will be consolidated into a policy-brief, that will help shape how MarineGuardian’s solutions are refined, communicated and positioned for adoption.

Salvador de Bahia, Brazil – April 2026

At the All-Atlantic Ocean Research and Innovation Alliance Forum 2026, held from 13–17 April in Salvador, Bahia, the MarineGuardian Project proudly supported one of the most impactful outcomes of the Intergenerational Ocean Hackathon: the resounding success of the Early Career Ocean Professionals (ECOPs) team in Challenge 4, “Connecting Data to Decisions for Small-Scale Fisheries and Aquaculture.”

Co-sponsored by International Council for the Exploration of the Sea, the challenge tackled a critical global issue— how to transform complex and fragmented ocean and climate data into practical, actionable decisions for small-scale fisheries (SSF) and aquaculture operators.

From Data Overload to Real-World Decisions

Small-scale fisheries and aquaculture are vital to coastal livelihoods across the Atlantic basin. Yet, as highlighted during the challenge, the barrier is no longer data scarcity—but the difficulty of translating diverse data streams into clear, timely, and context-relevant decisions. Climate change further intensifies this gap, shifting environmental baselines and increasing uncertainty for fishers and managers alike.

The ECOPs team responded with an innovative prototype: a Decision Support Tool (DST) for Small-Scale Fisheries, designed to bridge this gap. Their solution integrates and builds upon key MarineGuardian technologies—Catch Advisor, AI-Decide, and Eco Guide—bringing them together into a unified, user-oriented system.

Elevating MarineGuardian Solutions

By combining these tools, the ECOPs moved beyond individual applications toward a cohesive platform that enables:

• Data-driven decision-making on gear selection, fishing areas, and seasons
• Climate-aware insights, incorporating risk, resilience, and ecosystem sensitivity
• Biodiversity-positive practices, supporting sustainable marine resource use
• Accessible, mobile-friendly interfaces, suitable for use directly by fishers at sea

This integration marks a significant step forward for the MarineGuardian Project, demonstrating how its solutions can be scaled and adapted for real-world implementation across diverse contexts.

A Human-Centred Approach

A standout feature of the winning proposal was its focus on usability and storytelling. The team illustrated their solution through the experience of “Bruno,” a local fisherman, showing how daily decisions—where to fish, which gear to use, when to go out—could be improved through accessible, tailored insights.

This approach underscored a key message of the hackathon: data only becomes valuable when it is usable and relevant to the people making decisions.

Recognition and Collaboration

The ECOPs team’s work earned the Hackathon Champion Award, taking top recognition across all categories. Their achievement reflects not only technical excellence, but also the collaborative spirit fostered by the AAORIA Forum.

The success of Challenge 4 was driven by an outstanding and truly international team of Early Career Ocean Professionals (ECOPs), including Jasleen Jawanda, Ariadna Gorostegui Valenti, Ben Hunter, Wiam Touzani, Robert Mussgnug, Pablo Marro, Ramón Sancha, Conway Holroyd, Peter Teye Busumprah, Mariana Bordes Bueno, Gianluca Ristori Ramos and Amanda Lima. Bringing together diverse expertise across marine science, data analysis, technology, and stakeholder engagement, the team demonstrated exceptional creativity, teamwork, and dedication under pressure. Their collaborative spirit and ability to translate complex scientific concepts into a practical, user-oriented solution were central to the development of the Decision Support Tool for Small-Scale Fisheries.

Supported by a dedicated group of mentors and experts—including Harald Hasler-Sheetal and Caecilia Manago, who lead the Impact Maximisation Work Package within the MarineGuardian Project, alongside Trevor Swerdfager, Alberto González Díaz, and Tania Montoto—the team exemplified the power of intergenerational collaboration, transatlantic partnership, and science diplomacy.

The Intergenerational Ocean Hackathon was made possible thanks to the commitment and coordination of the organisers from the All-Atlantic Ocean Research and Innovation Alliance and the OKEANO Project, with key contributions from Laura Mc Donagh, Niall McDonough, Lavinia Giulia Pomarico, Lisa Picatto, Gwenn Taburet, Florence Coroner, and Sieglinde Gruber, the heart of the AAORIA ECOPs initiative.

The event was hosted by Brazilian partners, including the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation and SENAI CIMATEC, whose support ensured a dynamic and inspiring environment for innovation. Their collective efforts created a platform that not only fostered cutting-edge solutions, but also strengthened international collaboration and reinforced the role of science diplomacy in addressing global ocean challenges.

Looking Ahead

The success of Challenge 4 highlights the growing importance of tools that connect science to action. For the MarineGuardian Project, it represents a major milestone in advancing the practical application, uptake, and impact of its solutions.

As momentum continues through upcoming initiatives linked to ICES and broader ocean innovation programmes, the vision is clear: empower ocean communities with the tools they need to navigate a changing climate and build a more sustainable future, aligned with the EU Ocean Pact and UN Ocean Decade, providing the solutions we want for the ocean we need.

MarineGuardian remains committed to supporting this journey—transforming data into decisions, and decisions into impact.

Setting the scene

In mid-April 2026, the CCMAR team completed a training session in Faro where Prof. Carlos Silva from NOVA University Lisbon joined to be trained as the facilitator. The session covered the Conceptual Mapping and Fuzzy Cognitive Mapping methodology developed by the SINTEF Ocean team — the standardised approach applied across all six MarineGuardian case study regions.

With the methodology in hand, the team moved on to the stakeholder workshop.

The Workshop: Imagine a future where cetacean bycatch in beach seine fisheries has disappeared

At the heart of the MarineGuardian stakeholder methodology is a deliberately provocative question. Rather than asking participants to diagnose today’s problems, facilitators ask them to imagine a future where those problems have already been solved — and work backwards.

In Faro, that question was:

“Imagine it’s 2030, and cetacean bycatch in the beach seine fishery — arte xávega — has been completely solved. How did we get there?”

Participants — predominantly fishers with direct experience of the arte xávega fishery — explored seven key drivers of change that could influence that outcome: regulation, technology, markets, research, industry, fishing areas, and climate change.

Two drivers stood out as the most influential:

• Regulation emerged as the primary force shaping behaviour, incentives, and long-term direction. Participants recognised that without the right policy framework, even the most effective technological solutions struggle to gain traction in real fishing conditions.
• Technology came close behind — with specific solutions such as acoustic deterrents (pingers) and drones identified as promising tools already within reach.

The main discussions

The discussion highlighted how public perception and social media are now powerful forces influencing decision-making in marine conservation.

At the same time, there’s a growing shift toward economic diversification—moving beyond intensive fishing toward models that combine cultural heritage, sustainability, and tourism.

One of the most impactful ideas proposed was compensation per haul:

• A financial mechanism that compensates fishers when they interrupt a haul to save a marine animal.

• By removing the economic cost of doing the right thing, this approach creates a true win-win:
  • Supporting fishers’ livelihoods 
  • Strengthening biodiversity protection 

The takeaway

Solving complex challenges like bycatch requires alignment between policy, innovation, and human behaviour.
This workshop showed that a sustainable and thriving future for beach seine fisheries is not only possible—it’s already being designed.

What comes next

This workshop is the first step in a longer conversation. Later this summer, field tests of specific bycatch mitigation technologies will take place — generating new data that will feed back into the stakeholder process.

In approximately two years, the same communities will be brought back together for a second round of workshops. The goal will be to go deeper — and to see how perceptions have shifted in light of what has been learned and tested in the intervening period.

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This workshop was conducted as part of the MarineGuardian project’s stakeholder engagement programme, led by the SINTEF Ocean team. The CCMAR case study focuses on cetacean bycatch mitigation in Portuguese beach seine fisheries.

The “GEAR-UP” initiative, is a joint action driven by the triad of sister projects MarineGuardian, EcoCatch, and Sea4Future, has reached a key milestone with its official endorsement under the UN Ocean Decade. The recognition, combined with a strong presence at European Ocean Days, highlights the growing role of coordinated, cross-project collaboration in advancing sustainable ocean solutions.

UN Ocean Decade Endorses GEAR-UP

The endorsement of GEAR-UP under the UN Ocean Decade marks an important step for the triad, formally recognizing the joint efforts of MarineGuardian (Led by Matís), EcoCatch (Led by DTU Aqua), and Sea4Future (led by University of Alicante) in advancing innovative fishing gear solutions through a collaborative framework.

By bringing together three complementary projects, the initiative demonstrates how clustering expertise across regions and disciplines can accelerate progress toward shared ocean sustainability goals. The endorsement not only validates the scientific and practical relevance of the work but also positions the triad within a global network of initiatives contributing to the Ocean Decade vision.

European Ocean Days: Interactive Innovation at the EU Mission Forum

The triad’s momentum continued at European Ocean Days, where their work was prominently featured during the EU Mission Forum on March 2nd. Represented by Cesar Bordehore (University of Alicante) and Caecilia Managò (ICES) at a joint stand, the three projects showcased jointly their solutions to a diverse audience of policymakers, researchers, and industry stakeholders.

A key highlight of the stand was the use of interactive augmented reality (AR) goggles, which allowed visitors to engage directly with innovative fishing gear solutions in an immersive environment. This hands-on experience brought the projects’ work to life, illustrating how innovation can translate into practical applications and reinforcing the value of presenting joint outcomes rather than isolated project results.

From Actions to Impact: Presenting a Clustering Approach

On March 3rd, Caecilia Managò presented the triad in the workshop “From Actions to Impact: Tracking the progress of EU Mission ‘Ocean and Waters’,” with a focus on the clustering approach for impact maximisation. By working as a cohesive unit, the triad demonstrates how collaborative frameworks can improve efficiency, scalability, and policy relevance.

At the European Ocean Days, Massimiliano Nannini from Liguria Region and City of Genova, Italy, remarked:

“We have heard from so many projects, but we need to see how we can bring these together to foster impact.”

With the TRIAD, the team already puts this concept into practice through clustering—addressing the joint challenge of strengthening sustainable fisheries and protecting marine ecosystems through close collaboration.

This clustering approach was presented as a practical example of how aligning projects can amplify results, moving beyond individual outcomes toward system-wide impact within the EU Mission “Ocean and Waters.”

Strengthening Collaboration for Ocean Solutions

Together, the UN Ocean Decade endorsement and the triad’s active participation at European Ocean Days underline the importance of collaboration in tackling complex ocean challenges.

This is also strengthen by the policy brief on Horizon project clustering for impact led by Ivo Grigorov, edited by Caecilia Managò and where multiple colleagues contributed which explicitly support multiple AAORIA priorities on research and cooperation between Atlantic states.

The first week of March 2026, SINTEF – who leads the work on stakeholders and governance in MarineGuardian – held a training workshop in St. John’s, Newfoundland, Canada, with partners in the MarineGuardian project, preparing their teams to run stakeholder workshops. In the Newfoundland case study, the project is working with industry to explore gear innovations designed to reduce environmental impacts while maintaining viable fisheries.

These gear innovations include technologies and gear improvements aimed at reducing whale entanglement risks in fixed fishing gear used in trap and pot fisheries such as snow crab and lobster; improving the selectivity of trawl gear to reduce bycatch of non-target species in shrimp and groundfish fisheries; and minimising seabed disturbance caused by bottom trawling. These solutions are not purely experimental — many already exist at lower technology readiness levels (TRL) today. As such, the challenge is not simply whether they work, but whether they can realistically be adopted in fisheries in the region, and what barriers need to be overcome to ensure their implementation.

To understand the trade-offs associated with adopting these solutions, MarineGuardian will run a series of stakeholder workshops across all six case study regions during the spring of 2026. The aim of these workshops is to compile expert knowledge about precisely what the barriers are that may prevent the adoption of new fishing practices, including for example operational barriers such as how the gear performs in real fishing conditions; economic barriers such as costs, profitability and investment risk; cultural barriers including fishing traditions or resistance to change; and institutional barriers such as regulations, monitoring, or licensing conditions.Understanding these barriers is essential for identifying solutions that are not only environmentally effective, but also feasible for the fishing industry to adopt.

From Conceptual Mapping to Fuzzy Cognitive Mapping

The workshop in Newfoundland trained partners from Memorial University in the methodology that will be used in stakeholder sessions across all case areas, ensuring cross-case comparability. The process consists of two stages: Conceptual Mapping followed by Fuzzy Cognitive Mapping (FCM).

In the Conceptual Mapping stage, participants first work together to map the system that influences the adoption of new fishing technologies. Participants are asked to imagine themselves 40 years into the future, where today’s environmental challenges have been solved, and work backwards to identify what changes would have needed to happen to reach that outcome. To do this, they consider how key drivers may have changed, including 1) regulations, 2) markets, 3) technology, 4) access to fishing areas, 5) research, 6) climate change, and 7) industry.

This exercise is followed by a second stage where facilitators apply Fuzzy Cognitive Mapping. In this stage, participants assign strengths to the relationships between variables in the system, representing how strongly one factor influences another. The results will allow researchers to explore how different policy interventions or management strategies might influence outcomes.

These results will matter because fisheries systems are complex, and decisions about adopting new technologies are influenced not only by environmental concerns, but also by economics, regulations, and the operational realities of fishing. By facilitating stakeholder-driven perception workshops with participants from the fishing industry, MarineGuardian aims to better understand the barriers and trade-offs associated with implementing the sustainable fishing technologies being developed in the project.

Over the coming months, similar workshops will take place across all MarineGuardian case study regions, helping to identify realistic pathways toward more sustainable fisheries in all six case areas.

Last month, MarineGuardian reached a key milestone in the development of Optigear with the installation of Trackwell’s Hafsýn fleet management system onboard the vessel Þorún (research vessel from the Marine and Freshwater institute in Iceland). This marks the beginning of the first operational data collection phase in advancing Optigear toward commercial deployment.

By integrating Hafsýn with Optigear, captains could now receive live operational feedback designed to support:

• Minimizing fuel consumption
• Reducing seabed impact
• Extending the lifespan of fishing gear

What is Optigear ?

Otigear is an AI-based decision support system to optimise gear usage parameters in relation to their own past observed catch, fuel usage, and environmental impacts across fisheries and vessels. Optigear is connecting and integrating data from the automatic trawl winch (ATW) system and integrated gear sensors, GPS, environmental sensors onboard the vessel.

It is also linked to catch logbooks, incorporating data such as gear type, haul information, and captain records. Equipped with a basic reporting interface for analysing measurements and relationships between variables, the system is designed to automatically upload vessel data to a land-based platform for further analysis.

What was tested ?

This first deployment was designed to move Optigear from theory into practice. Rather than testing in controlled conditions, the system was implemented onboard a research vessel. A key focus was ensuring that all sensors and onboard systems communicate seamlessly — validating the integration of gear sensors, vessel systems, and data pipelines so that information flows reliably from sea to the analysis platform.

At the same time, the team began establishing baseline operational parameters by collecting reference data from real fishing operations. These baselines will serve as performance benchmarks for future commercial deployment. The phase also generated essential ground-truthing data, allowing MarineGuardian to verify system accuracy under real fishing conditions.

This is a key step toward scalable, data-driven fishing operations, so stay tune for further updates !