Our marine environment is fragile and easily affected by changes in its seawater chemistry and temperatures. We have already witnessed these effects in numerous coral bleaching events, to the detriment of our coral reefs. We need to understand our marine environment better and need suitable, affordable tools to carry out long-term marine research programs. Furthermore, constant monitoring will enable us to anticipate and properly quantify the impact of such events. However, monitoring our marine environment has always been challenging, due to difficulties of access and a lack of suitable equipment and local support. Monitoring efforts have thus until now been labour-intensive and expensive endeavours.

To meet these challenges, our ongoing project sees the development of an in-situ remote-sensing system for the environmental monitoring of MPAs and other vulnerable locations. Its sensors will measure seawater temperature, acidity, salinity, and dissolved oxygen. We also propose testing a hydrophone and underwater camera system, both of our own construction. The data that our system collects will further the understanding of the oceanographic dynamics of coastal ecosystems in Seychelles and other regions. To achieve this we will upcycle a decommissioned Fish Aggregation Device (FAD) sonar buoy, turning it into the Phoenix buoy, a low-cost automated remote-sensing buoy. In parallel we are developing the SeaScope buoy, which can also be deployed at depth as a sonde.

We expect to begin field-testing our devices near the end of 2024.