Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) are essential tools for the conservation of marine and coastal biodiversity. In Ireland, there is an urgent need to assess best monitoring practices that would allow MPA legislation to establish a well-thought out management framework, and minimise any management that would jeopardizes conservation goals.
Uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs) also commonly known as drones thus constitute an exciting and innovative approach to coastal and marine environmental monitoring that could potentially redefine traditional monitoring methodologies. However, in order for this to happen, it is important to address the challenges and limitations involved in using such devices in environmental research.
This project, along with its multi-disciplinary team, is looking at assessing the use of Uncrewed Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) to monitor MPAs and provide best-practice advice on their use. This includes
- the investigation of UAV flyover methods to monitor fishing activities,
- evaluating the abundance and distribution of biological features of interest, and
- quantifying the nature and extend of anthropogenic activities within selected case studies.
This work aspires to generate novel approaches to monitoring, complementing the objectives of the National Marine Planning Framework by outlining how human activities interact with each other in MPAs.
This research is funded under the Marine Institute Cullen Fellowship Programme (2024-2028) with Dr Debbi Pedreschi as led MI Supervisor.
