On 20 and 21 November, the ATLAS partnership promoted a two-day meeting for the kick-off of the project, focusing on ‘listening’ to the Atlantic acoustic using submarine fibre optic cables. This first meeting allowed the project partners, led by the Spanish institution Plataforma Oceánica de Canarias (PLOCAN), to address the technical and scientific planning of ATLAS, which seeks to use fibre optics deployed on the seabed as a network of acoustic sensors to detect large cetaceans, map underwater noise and improve earthquake and other geological risk alerts. The main goal is to contribute to the protection of biodiversity and maritime safety in the Atlantic Region.
The plan is to take advantage of existing infrastructure in the Canary Islands and on the Portuguese and Irish coasts, connecting the cables from land using optical interrogators, through the Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS) technology and providing services to authorities, organisations and observation networks interested in information on the state of the ocean.
The kick-off meeting also allowed the partners to approve the governance model of the project and to define milestones & pilots timetable for the next year. Partners made progress in designing the experiments, integrating data from different sources (DAS, hydrophones, autonomous gliders, and Automatic Identification System vessel traffic) and connecting with European platforms such as EMODnet and the Copernicus Marine Service.
The plan is to take advantage of existing infrastructure in the Canary Islands and on the Portuguese and Irish coasts, connecting the cables from land using optical interrogators, through the Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS) technology and providing services to authorities, organisations and observation networks interested in information on the state of the ocean.
The kick-off meeting also allowed the partners to approve the governance model of the project and to define milestones & pilots timetable for the next year. Partners made progress in designing the experiments, integrating data from different sources (DAS, hydrophones, autonomous gliders, and Automatic Identification System vessel traffic) and connecting with European platforms such as EMODnet and the Copernicus Marine Service.
Publish date: 2025-12-09
