Swim surveys of the Mediterranean rocky coasts: The Geoswim programme

ABSTRACT:

The Geoswim programme is an expedition-type project which is aiming to monitor, measure and survey rocky coasts of the Mediterranean Sea. The project officially started in 2012 with the first one-man survey of about 200 km by snorkelling along the NE Adriatic coasts, and is ongoing. Now far, 559.5 km of rocky coasts have been surveyed, over 98 days of survey, and several hundred thousand time-lapse images, continuous videos and outline images have been collected, above and below the waterline around 21 sites in the Mediterranean. Bathymetric data and physical/chemical parameters, such as temperature and electrical conductivity have also been collected during the snorkel surveys. Instruments are hosted on an Instrumental-Supported Raft (ISR). The Geoswim database represents a significant archive that provides 1) images and videos as a baseline for future comparisons, 2) large amount of images to build 3D models of the studied coasts, 3) data for statistics, and 4) a valuable approach of possible discoveries of unknown coastal objects, such as sea caves, etc at unexpected sites, ecological observations, etc.