The Edinburgh Napier University Centre for Conservation and Restoration Science (CCRS) were awarded funding to help remote survey of the Vaul Bay aggregation of Tope. This is a critical research priority in its own right, however the development of automated drone technology will also create a lasting capability to enhance marine monitoring more broadly.
Automated aerial surveys offer a non-invasive, efficient, and scalable approach that reduces overall costs, improves safety, and enables repeatable data collection in challenging environments. By piloting this technology, the project has support both the evidence base for managing key shark habitats and the wider goal of nature recovery through improved monitoring capacity in Scottish coastal waters.
The project has successfully met its core aims. It delivered a full test of automated drone use for coastal monitoring, from equipment setup and training through to field deployment and data collection. The pilot flights showed that the system can operate effectively in a real-world coastal environment and produce high-quality imagery suitable for monitoring. The project also achieved its intended outcome of preparing for future work at Tiree. A detailed deployment plan is now in place, and both the equipment and trained staff are ready for the next phase.
In 2023 SMEEF was able to provide a grant of £55,001 to support this work using resources from the Nature Restoration Fund.