Open Access Data

Open access data is a critical component of the African Marine MegaTransect Expedition. By open accessing the data,. the team aims to provide end users the ability to create pertinent and legitimate deductions from the data pertaining to fisheries management, MPA effectiveness, the use of AID funding in marine resource management, management effectiveness, modeling reef fish sustainability etc. All of the desired data outputs are criticle towards more effective fisheries management decision making, however currently in East africa, these resources are not available. The following is a list of expected scientific outcomes from the open access data provided by the expedition team.

• New high-definition stereo DOV datasets on shallow water coral reef fishes of a major portion of the East African coastline.
  
• New dataset of high-definition photographs of the shallow water benthic communities of a major portion of the East African coastline.
  
• Datasets for temporal comparison with EAMT 1, a previous expedition.
  
• New dataset from the BRUV deployments, on deep water reef fish communities.
  
• East African compliment to the Global Finprint Project global shark datasets.
  
• Extension of BRUV data for MPA assessments from South Africa and southern Mozambique.
  
• New dataset on the deep benthic reef communities.
  
• New data on fish microplastics assimilation.
  
• Updated information on fish and invertebrate species distributions in the East African region.
  
• Exploratory data and possible new distribution data for rare and endangered species from ROV dives.
  
• New data regarding the geographical identification of microplastic polluted areas.
  
• Multiple collaborations and increased data sharing at local and international levels.
  
• Numerous scientific publications, student projects, popular articles and conference presentations.
  
• Exploratory data using fluorescence imagery.