Pelagic ecosystems encompass marine organisms and environmental features located in the open ocean. Figuring among the largest ecosystems on Earth, they are increasingly recognized for their important role in supporting human societies. First, pelagic species provide important food sources for humans and are an essential supply for food security in many developing countries. Second, pelagic ecosystems play a critical role in climatic processes as they figure among the largest long-term sink for carbon in the biosphere.
Pelagic biodiversity is currently subject to major stressors from human activities and climate change. As a consequence, the conservation status of several pelagic species is a source of major concerns. Due to its sparseness, remoteness and vastness, the open ocean is difficult to access and monitor. Thus, the diversity trends and status of pelagic species still remain poorly assessed.
The objective of the project is developing monitoring platforms to observe the open ocean and its biodiversity in collaboration with fishers. At the core of the MOOBYF project is the fact that thousands of platforms already exist in the open ocean and are regularly maintained by fishers: the so-called Fish Aggregating Devices (FADs). FADs are artificial buoys or rafts deployed offshore by fishers to catch fish. They exploit the associative behavior of many tropical fish species, which form aggregations around floating objects. The project aims at using these FADs as scientific platforms to access the open ocean and monitor its pelagic biodiversity with the fishers. The project focuses on three main study areas located in the Indian ocean: Mayotte (French overseas department), the Maldives and Indonesia. In these areas, three main taxonomic groups of species are studied: teleost fish, elasmobranchs (sharks and rays) and cetaceans.
The objective of the project is developing monitoring platforms to observe the open ocean and its biodiversity in collaboration with fishers
