The marine aquaculture industry of southern Africa faces environmental pressures such as harmful algal blooms (HABs) and marine heatwaves, which can negatively affect production, animal health, and system water quality, potentially resulting in devastating economic losses. Satellite-derived information is of great value to the industry as it offers early warnings and a synoptic scale environmental overview of the location, size and intensity of external threats, facilitating appropriate risk mitigation steps. Under the South African National Oceans and Coastal Information Management System (OCIMS) project satellite-derived indicators and information services have been co-designed between earth observation specialists and the fisheries and aquaculture industry . The result is a fit-for-purpose decision support system that provides the capability of near real time monitoring, assessment , and mitigation for environmental risks . The Tool utilises freely available Copernicus satellite data, knowledge about local marine ecosystems and oceanographic patterns, and localised algorithms to provide maps and regionally relevant indicators (e.g. phytoplankton biomass, HAB warnings, temperature anomalies) through an interactive web application, facilitating operational support for daily decision making. These services have also been regionally expanded into southern Africa and the western Indian Ocean through the GMES&Africa programme’s Marine and Coastal Operations for southern Africa and the Indian Ocean (MarCOSIO ) project. We will provide specific examples of applied operational risk mitigation during harmful algal bloom events, and how these services support daily decision making in the South African abalone industry.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to acknowledge the OCIMS project, which received funding from the Department of Fisheries, Forestry and the Environment and the Department of Science and Innovation; as well as the MarCOSIO project, which received funding from the African Union Commission through the GMES&Africa programme.