A Digital Architecture for Smarter Catch Monitoring in EU Fisheries: The OptiFish Approach

The OptiFish Data Platform provides the technical backbone for a scalable, interoperable, and secure digital infrastructure supporting fisheries Monitoring, Control, and Surveillance across Europe. The platform enables the collection, semantic integration, processing, and dissemination of fisheries data from a heterogeneous landscape of sources, including onboard electronic monitoring systems, sensor networks, vessel tracking systems (e.g. AIS, VMS), and third-party providers. Following a C4 architectural approach (Context, Container, Component, Code), the design ensures modularity, traceability, and alignment with both technical and stakeholder requirements. The platform supports automated ETL (Extract, Transform, Load) pipelines, role-based access and compliance controls, and domain-specific analytics, while acting as a common interface for tools and services developed across OptiFish activities and use cases. This paper presents a focused view of the architectural foundations of the OptiFish Data Platform, highlighting key innovations, integration principles, and the roadmap for further development.