FVON INSTRUMENT INTERCOMPARISON EXPERIMENTS PHASE 1- CRUISE REPORTS

The Fishing Vessel Ocean Observing Network (FVON) is an international, interdisciplinary initiative dedicated to advancing ocean observing in partnership with the global fishing industry. Fishing vessels offer a unique and cost-effective platform for collecting oceanographic data, providing valuable insights into coastal seas across diverse fishing methods, practices, and cultural contexts. Through global collaboration, FVON aims to establish best practices, facilitate the adoption of innovative technologies, and maximize the value of ocean data, providing rigorous information that contributes to a transformative shift in understanding changing oceans and supports sustainable decision-making. A key component of this effort is the development and dissemination of operational guidelines on the optimal pairing of instruments and fishing gear, along with appropriate deployment configurations tailored to specific regional needs. Given the variety of instruments used across FVON programs, the network conducts instrument intercomparison studies to ensure alignment with oceanographic standards. These studies increase transparency regarding instrument performance and ultimately enrich the metadata accompanying the collected data, ensuring it is reliable and useful for end-users, thereby supporting more effective network planning. These intercomparison studies follow a participatory and peer-reviewed methodology. The present document describes the various steps and protocols adopted, especially in Phase 1 instrument intercomparison. It introduces the statistical analysis methodologies conducted on the depth, temperature, and secondarily salinity data collected across three testing sites—specifically in Italy, Japan, and the USA—and focuses on the operational outcomes of the activities carried out during the testing cruises. By synthesizing the results of deployments carried out across multiple test sites, this report identifies key operational insights. This includes an evaluation of deployment feasibility, data acquisition and transmission, power and memory constraints, and ease of use under realistic field conditions. This process indeed also aims to provide valuable feedback to manufacturers, helping them improve their systems and define their market position, while ensuring that the obtained data meets both scientific and operational needs.