The Autonomous Underwater Data Acquisition System for Physical and Chemical Parameters (AUDAS-PCP) onboard a fishing vessel

The acquisition of oceanographic data for scientific purposes is often quite complex due to the difficulties related to the marine environment. The expensive installation of oceanographic buoys is very often preferred, but they require long-term maintenance and are limited to a single-point acquisition. In other cases, the oceanographic surveys are, usually, limited in time. Another possibility, in order to obtain a low-cost and continuous acquisition of environmental data is to use the fishing boats as vessels of opportunity (VOOs). Of course, the success of this initiative is linked to both the automation of the data acquisition devices and the support of the fishing boat owners. In this context, in recent years the Istituto per l'Ambiente Marino Costiero (IAMC) of Capo Granitola, Italy launched a project involving the use of onboard ICT systems development and integration, aimed at technology transfer to fishing operators as well as at data collection in the marine environment. In this paper the development of an autonomous data logger for pressure and temperature data acquisition during fishing operations is presented. The Autonomous Underwater Data Acquisition System (AUDAS) does not require any operator intervention and is completely autonomous for battery charging and data transmission, making it inexpensive and minimally invasive. The results of a comparison between an AUDAS data logger and a calibrated CTD probe showed high system reliability. This can constitute a great opportunity to collect data on the marine environment using low-cost devices and improve the evaluation of the relationships between biological resources and oceanographic parameters.