Coastal Monitoring and Forecasting for Galway and Dublin Bays: Supporting Aquaculture, Biodiversity Restoration, and Environmental Management

Ostrea edulis, traditionally harvested in Galway Bay for centuries, has seen its populations decline significantly from their former abundance due to multiple stressors. Episodes of low salinity and elevated water temperatures often lead to increased oyster mortality, resulting in economic losses for aquaculture. Dublin Bay, adjacent to Ireland’s largest urban agglomeration, faces additional anthropogenic pressures, further challenging marine biodiversity and water quality.

To address these issues, recent developments funded under the Copernicus Marine Service COP INNO USER Programme and carried out by the Marine Institute (Ireland) and Nologin Oceanic Weather Systems (Spain) have enabled the provision of advanced marine forecasting services to oyster farmers and environmentalists engaged in biodiversity restoration. These developments include marine heatwave forecasting and daily oyster mortality estimation, delivered through an interactive web application called NAUI (biodiver.naui.io). NAUI provides real-time observational data, model forecasts and hindcasts, and tailored products co-developed with end users. Its modelling backbone relies on high-resolution coastal models—ROMS, CROCO-PISCES, and SWAN—downscaled from global and regional Copernicus Marine Service models. Key features include marine condition mapping, low-salinity and heatwave warnings, and indicators of salinity change rates during extreme events, all customizable to stakeholder needs.

This initiative exemplifies the growing effort to transform marine observations and forecasts into actionable information for aquaculture management and biodiversity conservation. Selected as a coastal demonstrator at the Digital Ocean Forum 2024, NAUI is set to integrate with the European Digital Twin of the Ocean (DTO), enabling faster performance and scalability to new regions, thereby enhancing its impact and replicability.