Digital Knowledge System

Nurseries in ports for biodiversity restoration

Portugal

Underwater oyster nursery cage and fish near marine structure in Portugal, promoting marine biodiversity restoration and habitat regeneration along Portuguese coastal waters

Repurpose sea-port infrastructure. Mitigate anthropogenic pressures and enhance biodiversity through the re-naturalization of grey infrastructure by combining passive and active recruitment technologies.

Main Target

Biodiversity restoration

Transformative Impact

The impact of the demo will be described at the end of the project implementation. During the implementation of the project in a specific area some intermediary results will be delivered, and all these results will be published to support the dissemination and the sustainability of the project.

Implemented Actions

Artificial fish nursery prototype deployed beneath Marina de Oeiras pontoons to enhance juvenile fish habitats in Portugal.

Installation of a prototype at Marina de Oeiras

Small prototype aiming to validate the installation and monitoring procedures in a small scale. This small testing site enables the interaction with underwater acoustic specialist biologists from the University of Lisbon that supported on the definition of the monitoring protocols.

Aerial view of the Ria de Aveiro pilot site with acoustic fish nursery demonstrator supporting Portuguese port biodiversity restoration.

Installation of a Demonstrator at Ria de Aveiro

Demonstrator of the acoustically enhanced artificial fish nurseries, installed at the “Porto de pequena pesca” in Ria de Aveiro, to demonstrate the impact and study scale-up strategies. The interaction with the local community, specially the fishermen community that use the small port enabled the fruitful interactions to understand the critical factors for a successful local implementation and future scale-up.

Community stakeholders in Portugal reviewing artificial marina nurseries to restore coastal biodiversity and fisheries.

Community engagement

Demonstration of the artificial fish nurseries solution to the local community, including local authorities, associations and members of the fishermen community.

Key Indicators

Number of usersRelevance for users