We are delighted to let you know that Dr Katy Hill has been selected as the new Chair of the Marine Environmental Data and Information Network (MEDIN). Katy is a Lead Scientist at the National Oceanography Centre, focusing on ocean research infrastructure. Katy's career has a strong strategic element and she is regularly called upon to provide expert advice to the UK Government on ocean issues.
Katy is actively engaged with international marine data initiatives, including the UN Ocean Decade Data Coordination Group and the World Meteorological Organisation Advisory Group on Ocean (WMO AG Ocean). With extensive networks across both academic and policy sectors, both nationally and internationally, Katy will bring fresh strategic insight to MEDIN. Katy's tenure as MEDIN Chair will be for five years, aligned with the MEDIN Business Plan schedule. We are sure you will join us in welcoming Katy to the role. |
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Katy says: ‘I am really excited to be taking on this role and working with ocean partners and stakeholders to promote and advance marine data sharing and delivery at a time when we are seeing a transformation of the data space within the marine realm and beyond!’
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World's first marine trial of new international standard
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The Marine Environmental Data and Information Network (MEDIN) is a collaborative network established in 2008 to increase access to and management of UK marine data. We know marine data are collected by many different organisations for a wide range of reasons, including for academic research, sustainable development of our seas and coasts, evidence to underpin policy, and conservation, to name a few. For over fifteen years, MEDIN has been making it easier to find all types of UK marine environmental data. By supplying a central web portal underpinned by consistent and standardised metadata, we provide a single place for users to find marine data belonging to over 600 different UK organisations.
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This year, MEDIN has taken the next step towards providing a single place to effortlessly access marine data from all those different organisations. We carried out the first marine trial globally of a new international standard for APIs (Application Programming Interfaces). These are the interfaces that sit on top of a database to allow users to query and access an organisation’s data holdings. The standard that we trialled was developed by the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) and has been specifically developed for environmental data. It is called the OGC Environmental Data Retrieval API standard and is designed to be extremely flexible, hide the data storage details and be useful to non-expert users (think members of the public, policymakers, experts in different domains).
Three of MEDIN’s Data Archive Centres – the British Geological Survey, DASSH and the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (Cefas) - trialled this standard on some or all of their data, exposing challenges and ambiguities with applying this standard in a marine context. This work has sparked international interest in MEDIN and a recognition that we are leading the way in exploring these cutting-edge, interoperable standards for marine data. Read the 2 technical reports: BGS and Cefas and DASSH. |
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MEDIN supports the UN Ocean Decade digital infrastructure
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The Marine Environmental Data and Information Network ( MEDIN) is a collaborative network that works with UK organisations to promote good data management practices and marine data sharing. MEDIN has taken the exciting step of making all the data described on its centralised web portal accessible to the UN Ocean Decade digital infrastructure, Ocean InfoHub. Greatly enhancing the findability of UK marine data, this work supports MEDIN’s ethos of ‘measure once, use many times.’ |
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Now, any data that you archive with an accredited MEDIN data centre can be accessed from Ocean InfoHub. This is the culmination of several months’ collaboration between MEDIN and the Ocean InfoHub team to make sure all systems involved are compatible. Thanks to the hard work of many MEDIN partners, particularly the data centres, MEDIN metadata are rich in content and our systems are interoperable, so it was relatively straightforward to add records to the Ocean InfoHub web portal. This milestone makes MEDIN the biggest contributor to this globally important digital infrastructure to date and is another example of MEDIN providing global leadership in this area.
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MEDIN needs your input for Marine Data Management training
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We are gathering user requirements for our training courses on marine data management, governance and the MEDIN toolset. Responses to this questionnaire will shape our development of the training courses.
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The online course currently runs over 5 days with live sessions in the morning and independent study in the afternoons - this is designed to be flexible so attendees can complete the course without too much disruption to their regular work. See here for the topics covered.
This form should take around 3 minutes to complete.
Please do not hesitate to contact MEDIN if you have any queries about this . |
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Welcome to the Society of Maritime Industries!
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MEDIN is thrilled to welcome Society of Maritime Industries (SMI) as a MEDIN Partner.
Some benefits of being a MEDIN Partner are:
- Membership of MEDIN working groups in order to steer and influence our direction.
- Priority access to bespoke data management training workshops.
- Increased exposure of your work, as we prioritise partner activity in promotional materials and in our online newsletter, Marine Data News.
- Collaboration opportunities with the marine data community.
- Opportunities for data management project funding.
- Use of the ‘MEDIN Partner’ logo.
We are excited for future collaborations with SMI. For more information on joining the network as a Sponsor and Partner see our website or email enquiries@medin.org.uk. |
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Marine Data Exchange 10th Anniversary and new Crown Estate partnership
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The Crown Estate and Crown Estate Scotland have announced a new partnership to collect and share data on the Marine Data Exchange to provide a more comprehensive and integrated understanding of the UK’s seabed. This new arrangement will benefit its many different users, the natural environment and support the faster, more sustainable rollout of offshore technologies that are critical to the UK’s transition to a net zero energy future.
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Crown Estate Scotland sharing its offshore data on the Marine Data Exchange creates a single portal for offshore projects, such as wind energy, to make data available in a standardised and consistent way, regardless of jurisdiction.
As sponsors of the Marine Environmental Data and Information Network (MEDIN), The Crown Estate is committed to ensuring that the data held on the Marine Data Exchange aligns with MEDIN standards. Since 2015, all data delivered to the Marine Data Exchange has had to meet MEDIN Data Guidelines and be accompanied by MEDIN Discovery Metadata to enhance discoverability. As Crown Estate Scotland joins forces with The Crown Estate, these standards will apply across the UK and MEDIN will continue to be an important tool in how UK industries share their data.
This exciting new partnership comes off the back of The Crown Estate’s Marine Data Exchange 10th year anniversary event, where The Crown Estate celebrated with customers and stakeholders who continue to support the company’s ongoing commitment to invest in evidence and data as part of a strategic focus on climate change and energy security, nature recovery and economic growth.
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The Ocean Data and Information System - a contribution to the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development
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The Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission's (IOC) International Oceanographic Data and Information Exchange (IODE) programme leads the development of the Ocean Data and Information System (ODIS), which provides an interoperability layer and supporting technology to allow existing and emerging ocean data and information systems, from any stakeholder, to interoperate with one another. This enables and accelerates more effective development and dissemination of digital technology and sharing of ocean data, information, and knowledge. ODIS is a collaborative solution to interlink distributed systems for common goals. Together with global project partners and partners in three pilot regions, a process of co-design is underway, enabling a number of global and regional nodes to test the proof of concept for ODIS, and work together on its documentation.
The first phase of ODIS began with the development of the ODIS Catalogue of Sources. This is a browsable and searchable online catalogue of existing ocean-related, web-based sources/systems of data, information, products and services. It will also visualise the landscape (entities and their connections) of ocean data and information sources. It currently contains over 3000 records.
The UK is host country for 140 entries including a number from the Marine Environmental Data and Information Network (MEDIN) and the MEDIN Data Archive Centres (DACs). There are also entries from a variety of other sources including universities, researchers, government and commercial organisations. The UK is also a contributing organisation to a further 100 entries. Information is catalogued in the following categories:
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The British Oceanographic Data Centre (BODC) acts as the UK’s National Coordinator for Oceanographic Data Management within the IODE system and as such has been tasked with reviewing the UK entries. BODC will soon be reaching out to UK organisations asking them to review their own entries and add new ones.
A further component of ODIS is the Ocean InfoHub project, which has developed the first phase of the architecture underpinning ODIS, involving user communities. In collaboration with the European SeaDataNet infrastructure and MEDIN, BODC have worked on a pilot exposure of BODC data assets to Ocean Info Hub. This work is potentially key in informing other data centres on how to align with Ocean Info Hub and thus the wider ODIS architecture. It was also an opportunity for the UK to contribute to the further evolution of the ODIS architecture, which will benefit the broader global community. Further work is planned within BODC to operationalise this proof-of-concept activity. For further information please contact Justin Buck and Mark Hebden.
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Introducing the Offshore Wind and Evidence Knowledge Hub
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This autumn, a new digital resource will be made available for the offshore wind community. The Offshore Wind Evidence & Knowledge Hub (OWEKH), a new digital knowledge hub that aims to transform the information landscape of the offshore wind sector, will open in November, with a Community of Practice established and open for new members.
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Funded by The Crown Estate through the Offshore Wind Evidence & Change Programme, and run by AtkinsRéalis, OWEKH will help realise the UK’s ambition of 50 Gigawatts of offshore wind by 2030 through enabling easy access to information to accelerate and streamline the consenting process. Now, the launch of the digital portal will enable developers, regulators, marine specialists and other professionals working in offshore wind to access and interact with key data and documentation to inform rapid, high-quality consenting around offshore wind development. This includes past impact assessments, industry knowledge, large-scale datasets and academic references.
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With the hub soon available, the accompanying Community of Practice has begun to grow, with the first Technical Topic Group assembled in September. The Community of Practice is intended to incorporate all individuals working within Offshore Wind, or in stakeholder areas, while Technical Topic Groups are a fundamental component of the OWEKH platform; sector specialists who will collaborate to identify, shape and create best practice industry guidance in their specific domain. The first Technical Topic Group to meet is focused on Impact Assessment and will constructively assist in shaping development of further groups.
As OWEKH grows, organisations and individuals are invited to help support and shape the development of OWEKH by signing up to become part of the Community of Practice and Technical Topic Groups. By doing so, they can lend their expertise in curating and interpreting the data and evidence collected within the knowledge hub. Participants will be able to keep up to date with the latest industry advances, input their own expertise and link up with subject matter experts in key concerns.
Any parties involved in the offshore wind consenting process are invited to participate; from consultants, specialised sub-contractors and developers to regulatory and other stakeholders, including marine professionals and fisheries planners.
Offshore Wind professionals and other stakeholders can sign up to register their interest in the launch now, exploring existing data and publications and submitting new content. Contact Elspeth.McIntyre@atkinsrealis.com to learn more.
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Data quality back on track and helping to deliver UK Sea Level Rise figures
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Despite ever-increasing global recognition of the importance of sea level data to inform decision-makers on climate and environmental policies, there was insufficient data to update the UK sea level index in both 2020 and 2021 (Kendon et al., 2022).
However, data quality and reliability are now back on track and the tide gauge network is operating at a high enough standard to calculate this vital statistic. Importantly, the Environment Agency (EA) have been able to submit mean sea level values, for the purposes of tracking sea level rise, in 2022.
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What has changed?
In late 2021 OceanWise were awarded the Environment Agency’s contract to maintain and update the United Kingdom’s National Tide Gauge Network (NTGN), which underpins coastal flood forecasting around the UK and comprises a network of 42 tide gauges sited at key locations.
On taking on the contract OceanWise became responsible for ensuring the real-time stream of high-quality data from the network, whilst simultaneously maintaining the legacy sensors to maintain the long-term data record. OceanWise achieve this by providing maintenance, systematic improvements and a quick response to any ad hoc faults that arise.
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Image (left) shows all 42 tide gauges around the UK. Image source / credit: https://ntslf.org/
OceanWise Chief Financial Officer (CFO), Dr Mike Osborne explains, “We are delighted to have been given the responsibility of maintaining the NTGN on behalf of the nation. We have particularly enjoyed working with the EA and the National Oceanography Centre (NOC) to upgrade the network, using our expertise and experience in sensor, and data acquisition and management technologies, whilst at the same time maintaining and enhancing the legacy ‘bubbler’ based systems to improve the reliability and quality of the data overall“.
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More about the National Tide Gauge Network
The purpose of the NTGN is to observe sea level throughout the UK in near real-time, as input to monitoring and forecasting coastal surges, and to provide a long-term and strategic record for climatological and coastal engineering studies. The network currently consists of 21 sites in England, 10 in Scotland, 7 in Wales, 2 in Northern Ireland, 1 in Jersey and 1 in the Isle of Man.
The data provided by the network of gauges is also used by academics and researchers for a variety of other scientific purposes. Several of the gauges are part of the Global Sea Level Observing System (GLOSS) and are of international and historical significance, with some datasets dating back to the 18th century.
For more on how OceanWise support the EA and other environmental monitoring projects around the world, please visit their website www.oceanwise.eu or contact them on info@oceanwise.eu
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SafetyNet Technologies undertakes selectivity trials in Nephrops fisheries
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SafetyNet Technologies is gearing up for full selectivity trials in Nephrops fisheries, following almost two years of testing artificial lights on commercial Nephrops trawls in the North and Irish Sea basins. These trials, were conducted in August and September 2023 on the vessels MFV Virtuous and the MFV Golden Ray.
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Above: Trials are being conducted aboard the MFV Virtuous of Fraserburgh and the MFV Golden Ray of Portavogie
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The trials to date have seen Pisces underwater lights fitted to multiple locations around the trawls during commercial fishing trips. For over 600 hauls, the Light Emitting Diode (LED) lights were tested for brightness, flash rate, colour and placement within the net. Scientists sampled catch composition for each haul, with the aim of finding the best combination to reduce unwanted bycatch without affecting commercial catch levels.
In addition to the Pisces lights, the CatchCam camera system was also deployed. The camera allowed skippers and scientists to see what was happening underwater, including fish behaviour and any interactions between the fish and the Pisces lights. |
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Image (right) CatchCam camera attached to a trawl net during trials in the North Sea.
Light is known to affect fish behaviour. In fact, previous tank studies have found significant changes in fish behaviour around artificial light. However, these can be hard to replicate in a commercial fishing setting due to external factors like visibility and prey species. Initial commercial trials yielded inconclusive results.
The same cannot be said about the insights recorded by CatchCam. The underwater footage revealed that fish appeared more receptive towards the codend of the net, prompting the research team to focus there and explore additional technical measures to help unwanted bycatch escape.
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These results seem promising and are being more rigorously investigated in the current trials, keeping in mind that these solutions need to benefit both the fishing industry and support marine life.
The ongoing trials are being conducted aboard two vessels, the MFV Virtuous and the MFV Golden Ray, each running a pair design with one net acting as a ‘control’ trial and the other as the treatment. In order to measure the impact on bycatch, CatchCam cameras are being attached to both nets to film fish escaping underwater. The total catch from each net will be measured for comparison. The impact of the LED lights and technical measures will also be quantified.
These trials are funded under the FISP project titled Piscesgate and are supported by Marks and Spencer and Whitby Seafoods. August trials occurred in the North Sea, with additional trials underway in the Irish Sea. SafetyNet Technologies will provide regular updates on their progress, with results expected to be published shortly after. Find out more, watch the video and stay informed by joining the SafetyNet mailing list here.
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Welsh Marine Evidence Conference, 2024
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Environment Platform Wales, Natural Resources Wales (NRW) and the Welsh Government are excited to announce that, following the success of the 2019 Marine Evidence conference in Swansea, there will be another conference in February 2024.
The conference will be held over three days (likely to be 27-29 February) at the Bangor Management Centre. An option to attend the conference online will also be available for those who cannot make it in person.
Register your interest in attending here. |
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Historic England need your input!
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Historic England publishes open data via its Open Data Hub. If you use any of the resources currently on the Historic England Open Data Hub, please fill out this short survey and tell them your thoughts for improving the service.
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