21/07/2026
Something extraordinary is happening on Taransay. Every hour, on the hour, sensors located around the island are gathering data on sea temperature, as part of a network right across the Atlantic. This is the work of Dr Rui Seabra, a Portuguese marine ecologist from Biopolis-CIBIO. He has recently returned to Taransay to both collect sensor data from already installed sensors, and put in some new ones. Now, Taransay has nearly 50 sensors in place in 15 locations. This marries in with Rui’s larger network, of more than 3,000 sensors all around the Atlantic Ocean.
Once in place, the sensors collect data for 15 years. It’s a magnificent project, giving empirical data that will greatly contribute to our knowledge of the state of the world’s oceans, and should yield insights into how temperature changes may affect marine biodiversity. And within the network, Taransay will perform a strong role as a central data collection point.
’Taransay is a perfect place for us to experiment,’ explains Rui. 'It is the right size, being sizeable, but also accessible. It has a complexity of environments, both exposed and sheltered, within an addressable area. It gives us the best opportunity to test various hypotheses, that are hard to address elsewhere. And its just an incredible place
