Morocco to host North Africa’s first sea observatory

Morocco will be home to the first North Africa fully operational sea observatory. The project is part of a European Union-funded project called ODYSSEA, which integrates networks of observing and forecasting systems across the Mediterranean basin, addressing both the open sea and the coastal zone.

The new Morocco sea observatory will be in Al Hoceima National Park and is expected to be launched on October 29 during the third general assembly of the ODYSSEA Project.

The second mission of the this project will be launched at its Morocco observatory, which will be operated by project partner Association for Intergrated Resource Management (AGIR), said the European Commission in a communiqué published on its website.

Through this mission, the body will use a glider to «document and map sea mammal populations, sonar ping echo, maritime traffic, health and conditions of marine habitats, human noice, and carry out basic Environmental Protection Engineering (EPE) studies», the same source said.

«We are very excited to host this meeting as the first North African observatory is becoming fully operational collecting onsite data from the ODYSSEA Platform», said Houssine Nibani, AGIR's President.

For the record, the ODYSSEA Project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program.