Scirena, an innovative system for the continuous monitoring of the recolonization of underwater fauna.

"The Scirena project is strikingly innovative. It will ultimately confirm the importance of the Remora demonstrator. It is strategic to have the capacity to combine these two tools simultaneously."

Emmanuel Plessis

Oceanica Prod, experts in underwater, as well as onshore, aerial, underground and even polar photography, is based in the south of France. It has joined Kalysée, a Marseille startup specialized in the analysis, enrichment and indexing of individual contents. Their idea is to create a system for the registration, counting and recognition of submarine species, also including data processing. Named Scirena, this system serves to credibilize a protocol for the scientific monitoring of the species. The techniques employed will improve underwater photography without any human disturbance on the one hand, and also optimize the data treatment time (1 hour of video - instead of the present 10 minutes - per hour of processing) by automatic data analysis by the creation of a digital and automatic underwater species recognition software.

The Veolia Foundation has been involved since 2003 with the Rhone-Mediterranean-Corsica Water Agency to revitalize the marine environment in the Bay of Toulon through the Remora project. This project is designed to promote the return of the fauna to a marine area that has been polluted by several years of untreated releases from the Toulon urban community^[1]. The original wire-form structures of the Remora artificial reefs accelerate the fixation of the microfauna, the microflora and the postlarvae, and thereby contribute the nutrients for the fish and for the seabed. This is why the foundation, like its partner the RMC Water Agency, have decided to support Scirena. This fish counting system will help monitor the recolonization of a Remora reef at the exit of the Amphitria waste treatment plant, and on another identical reef at some distance from the plant.

This full-scale test of Scirena will thus help to obtain scientific results validating the impact of the Remora structures. And the Oceanica Prod and Kalysée team will be able to propose an innovative system for analyzing marine colonization to the scientific community and the water experts. A genuine tool in the service of underwater biodiversity.

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