Donia, an app for a sustainable mooring
After the Mediterranean coast and Corsica, Donia is now accessible to Sardinian boaters and yacht captains! The underwater mapping of marine protected areas of Capo Carbonara (southern Sardinia) and Tavolara – Punta Coda Cavallo, North East, were conducted by Andromede Oceanology behind the app creation, in partnership with the Small Islands of Mediterranean (PIM) and other financial support.
Seabed high quality images in real time to know where to anchor
Cartographic and photographic inventory of marine habitats and species of high precision could be performed in Sardinia through the use of high-tech equipment: side-scan sonar, interferometric sonar, towed diver transects, dives at several meters from the bottom to more than 80 meters deep. A detailed 3D map now allows to get high quality images in real time on the state of the seabed and the inhabitants of these marine protected areas visited by so many boaters. These last one can now benefit from Donia app help to see the seabed and thus choose the right place to lay their anchor, reducing consistently moorings damage to Posidonia. Considered a species of “keystone” in the Mediterranean, these aquatic flowering plants are declining which threatens not only the biodiversity of the area, but the balance of the entire coastal ecosystem. Maps are available on Metrix.
Free app Donia for a safer mooring
The application can be downloaded for free and also works well on tablets or smartphones. In addition to “Posidonia seagrass”, Donia allows the user to identify three other types of seabed: “sand”, “matte Posidonia” and “rock”. The app also allows to improve boaters’ safety since the anchorage on seagrass Posidonia often leads to skidding. In addition, users can benefit from three alarms (skid, collision and entanglement chains) for a fee of 10€. These three alarms make the anchoring process even safer.Moreover, very high resolution morpho-bathymetric maps can be purchased (15€ per 4km2). These cards are 400 times more precise than official maps and can be very precious for divers. The app will be soon available on the entire French territory, then in the French neighbors.
