Global Fisheries Atlas
The Global Record of Stocks and Fisheries (GRSF) and the Tuna Atlas VLabs developed in the Horizon 2020 project Blue-Cloud are already operational. GRSF is a knowledge management VLab dealing with best practices by implementing Semantic Web technologies. The Fishery Atlas is a spatial data management VLab, complying with OGC standards to manage syntactic interoperability. Since 2023 the VLabs is being extended to capture fisheries data and environmental parameters on a global scale.
In Blue-Cloud 2026 The Global Fisheries Atlas VLab provides a single and FAIR-compliant entry point for end users to discover, access and understand the state of stocks and fisheries worldwide. The Global Fishery Atlas combines GRSF and the Global Tuna Atlas, thereby integrating and harmonising new datasets relevant for fisheries variables. These datasets give updated global statistics of Tuna Fisheries that can used to build new datasets (upper levels of processings) and applications (dashboards) expected by scientists and decision makers to better manage these key marine resources.
Both data and code are open. Datasets are generated by a workflow (R programming language) that has been built, executed and can be reproduced in the Global Fisheries Atlas Virtual Laboratory of the Blue-Cloud infrastructure. This is a good step forward and a good demonstrator for those looking to make fisheries data FAIR.Â
The current R-based data workflow will be strengthened to become more robust and more generic. Extensive use of OGC standards for spatial (meta)data management will foster data discovery, interoperability, and reuse. Standard data formats and access protocols will be used to disseminate new datasets and DOIs will be assigned to ensure their long-term availability and citation. Semantic interoperability will be facilitated by knowledge management technologies.
The VLab is expected to become openly accessible in Spring 2025.