The objective of SMARTFISH is to develop, test and promote a suite of high-tech systems for the EU fishing sector, to optimize resource efficiency, to improve automatic data collection for fish stock assessment, to provide evidence of compliance with fishery regulations and to reduce ecological impact. SMARTFISH exploits technological developments in machine vision, camera technology, data processing, machine learning, artificial intelligence, big data analysis, smartphones/tablets, LED technology, acoustics and ROV technology to build systems for monitoring, analyzing and improving processes for all facets of the fishing sector, from extraction, to assessment, to monitoring and control. The SMARTFISH systems will: - assist fishermen in making informed decisions during pre-catch, catching, and post-catch phases of the extraction process. This improves catch efficiencies and compositions in fisheries across the EU, leading to improved economic efficiency while reducing unintended fish mortality, unnecessary fishing pressure and ecosystem damage. - provide new data for stock assessment from commercial fishing and improve the quality and quantity of data that comes from traditional assessment surveys. This provides more accurate assessment of currently assessed stocks and allow the assessment of data-poor stocks. - permit the automatic collection of catch data to ensure compliance with fisheries management regulations. The SMARTFISH systems are tested and demonstrated in several EU fisheries. This contributes to promoting the uptake of the systems by extraction sector and fisheries agencies. An interdisciplinary consortium with technology developers and instrument suppliers, fishing companies, research and fisheries management institutes and universities will realize SMARTFISH. They are active at national and international levels and well placed to ensure the uptake of SMARTFISH systems by fishing industry and fisheries managers and stock assessment scientists.

Bycatch, the unintentional capture of non-target marine animals during fishing, is considered one of the greatest threats to marine species globally. This threat is particularly significant for protected, endangered and threatened species (PETS), including marine mammals, seabirds, turtles and sensitive fish species, with their bycatch threatening marine ecosystem health. While bycatch of PETS is recognized as a significant issue, advances in fully understanding risks to PETS have been limited, due to current inability to effectively monitor wide ranging, highly mobile and cryptic species. There has been further lack in advancement in approaches to reduce such risks. These issues all hinder Member States ability to eliminate and significantly reduce bycatch. MarineBeacon will respond to these challenges, working across a regional seas scale to identifying where significant gaps in understanding lie, and adopt innovative approaches to produce the knowledge and tools to better understand bycatch risk and vulnerability. Next generation monitoring tools will be produced and developed to improve understanding of the distribution and abundance of PETS in addition to the levels in which they interact with fisheries. Cutting-edge mitigation tools and techniques will then be extensively tested across diverse fisheries and regions to ensure transferable outputs are generated to significantly mitigate against bycatch risk. MarineBeacon will facilitate the uptake and adoption of its targeted outputs by policy, management, and industry by adopting a stakeholder centered approach, engaging and collaborating with stakeholder throughout the project to producing best acceptable solutions. Importantly, MarineBeacon will ensure long-term applicability and impact of outputs beyond the lifetime of the project through the production of a suite of decision support tools to ensure all measures to better monitor PETS and mitigate against bycatch risk are effectively targeted.