ANERIS was featured in World Ocean Day: Know, Comprehend, Coexist 2026 (Giornata Mondiale degli Oceani – Conoscere, Comprendere, Convivere), with the main focus on the project’s Case Study 1: High-temporal resolution marine life monitoring in Research Infrastructures (RI) observations. 

Promoted by the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV), World Ocean Day’s main mission is to reflect on the importance of oceans and seas, and highlight the impact of our daily lives on their future. This year, the event took place between the 6th and 8th of June, in Genoa, Italy, and featured ANERIS’ next-generation technologies in AI-driven biodiversity monitoring. 

ANERIS was highlighted during the event by presenting the innovations from the project’s Case Study 1. This case study showcases the use of advanced sensing tools and AI to continuously monitor marine biodiversity at high-frequency, targeting macrofauna and phytoplankton. The project managed to achieve 500 days of non-stop monitoring in its two test fields, provided by EMSO: EMSO OBSEA (Spain, operated by the Polytechnic University of Catalonia - UPC) and EMSO SmartBay (Ireland, operated by the Marine Institute).

This achievement is split into two Operational Marine Biology (OMB) workflows. The first one, Automated Plankton Monitoring, uses innovative AI pipelines (AIES-PHY and AIES-ZOO), coupled with specialised sensors (UVP6 and CytoSub). It automatically tracks and measures plankton communities in real-time observations. The second - Automated Macrofauna Monitoring, is combined with a multi-camera underwater system (EMUAS), an image-enhancement tool (ATIRES) and an AI pipeline (AIES-MAC). It clears up murky images and allows the instant detection, tracking and classification of fish and benthic species by YOLO (next-generation computer vision algorithms).

World Ocean Day allowed visitors to connect to the science community through many interesting seminars, workshops, experimental activities and an organised exhibition village in the city centre of Genoa. Read more about the event on their website here.