Developing a Cost-Effective Permanent Estuarine Telemetry Array Through Regional Partnerships

Natural England is seeking partners to help design and establish a permanent acoustic telemetry monitoring array for estuaries and inshore waters along the South Coast. This project builds on successful collaboration demonstrating that acoustic telemetry provides high-quality evidence for protected site management and ecosystem-based recommendations. The permanent array will reduce ongoing start-up costs, enable long-duration data collection on mobile species movements and habitat use, and strengthen monitoring coverage in underrepresented estuarine and inshore areas. Partners will help test a cost-effective, semi-autonomous system and establish a coastal collective to maintain equipment, manage data, and explore a centrally funded, regionally delivered model for long-term sustainability across the UK.