HOW IT WORKS
A mooring management tool for managers of marine areas
BlueMooring is a tool developed with and for mooring zone managers. It enables marine area managers to effectively manage their moorings zones, collect mooring fees (in option) and communicate more easily with visitors. This platform is coupled with a web app for boaters and ecotourism professionals. Thanks to this app, they can book a buoy and discover the conservation actions carried out on the site.
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BlueMooring addresses challenges that marine area managers face on a daily basis, such as:
- The time-consuming activity that mooring management and fee collection are,
- The inability to collect data on mooring use and report them to higher authorities,
- The difficulties to inform visitors about restrictions and communicate effectively with them,
- The important mobilization of resources entailed by mooring management at the expanse of marine conservation.
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BlueMooring allows managers to:
Manage reservations of moorings
BlueMooring allows managers to automatize the management of mooring reservations and is a timesaver for fee collection.
Collect and report data on occupation
BlueMooring collects data on mooring occupation on your area, including boaters and ecotourism initiatives such as diving clubs. The tool is accounting-friendly and allows you to report information to higher authorities.
Communicate effectively with visitors
Make sure your visitors are aware of the restrictions in force in your area and promote your conservation activities on a showcase page.
Manage moorings of ecotourism professionals
Monitor moorings of diving clubs and other initiatives, report data on their activities and get field reports from them.
Optimize mooring maintenance
Set up reminders to check the state of your buoys and make intervention easier thanks to an incident map.
Finance your marine area
Create a new source of revenues by collecting fees and channel them towards conservation actions.
They use BlueMooring to manage their moorings
We are very satisfied with this initiative and to be in some way a reference also for other Mediterranean MPAs. For some years now, the Sinis marine area has embarked on a path towards simplification and innovation, trying to meet the demand of boaters and putting their suggestions into practice... With this new platform, we are making an important qualitative step.
Massimo Marras, Director of the Sinis Peninsula – Mal di Ventre Island marine protected area, Italy
We are very satisfied with this initiative and to be in some way a reference also for other Mediterranean MPAs. For some years now, the Sinis marine area has embarked on a path towards simplification and innovation, trying to meet the demand of boaters and putting their suggestions into practice... With this new platform, we are making an important qualitative step.
Massimo Marras, Director of the Sinis Peninsula – Mal di Ventre Island marine protected area, Italy
We are very satisfied with this initiative and to be in some way a reference also for other Mediterranean MPAs. For some years now, the Sinis marine area has embarked on a path towards simplification and innovation, trying to meet the demand of boaters and putting their suggestions into practice... With this new platform, we are making an important qualitative step.
Massimo Marras, Director of the Sinis Peninsula – Mal di Ventre Island marine protected area, Italy
Q&A – Questions and answers
My marine area appears on BlueMooring and I would like to edit the information featured on its showcase page. How can I do so?
Do not hesitate to contact us at contact@bluemooring.org so we can provide you with login details to edit the showcase page of your marine area.
How can visitors book a mooring in my marine area with BlueMooring?
In a few clicks, boaters can proceed in 4 different ways to book a buoy in your marine area:
- By scanning a QR code affixed on the buoy;
- By adding the ID of the buoy on BlueMooring for a quick find and booking;
- By selecting a buoy on the marine area’s list or on the map, whether they’re booking from home or geolocating their position on-site;
- With the help of a ranger, who has the ability to book a mooring for the visitor, and then record the payments made by cash or by payment terminal directly in BlueMooring.
- By scanning a QR code affixed on the buoy;
- By adding the ID of the buoy on BlueMooring for a quick find and booking;
- By selecting a buoy on the marine area’s list or on the map, whether they’re booking from home or geolocating their position on-site;
- With the help of a ranger, who has the ability to book a mooring for the visitor, and then record the payments made by cash or by payment terminal directly in BlueMooring.
I am interested in using BlueMooring to manage my mooring zones. Who can I get in touch with?
If you want more information or a demo about BlueMooring and assess how much it suitable to the daily activities of your marine area, you can contact us by sending us an email at contact@bluemooring.org.
How to set up BlueMooring in my marine area?
Implementing BlueMooring on a marine area is a quick process. Managers of sensible marine areas can set up BlueMooring in a few steps: 1. We can help you set up your interface by completing your marine area’s showcase page with its description, your conservation actions, multimedia content and other information. Afterwards, we add your mooring zones, buoys and passes you want to offer to boaters. 2. The BlueMooring team will then take care of building the connection with your preferred payment solution. 3. If you chose to adopt on-site QR codes as one of the ways visitors can book your buoys: we will design the QR code stickers for you to affix on your buoys. 4. Deploy communication in your marine area to make sure boaters are aware of your new mooring system!
Can special payment solutions be linked with BlueMooring’s payment system?
BlueMooring makes it easy for public authorities and private organisations to collect mooring fees by building connections with external payment solutions. Our team have already linked BlueMooring to existing payment solutions like Stripe, and other used by public administrations for French and Italian marine protected areas, like PayFiP and PayTAS.
Does BlueMooring support long-term mooring passes in addition to single-day/night booking?
In addition to single-day/night mooring, BlueMooring allows managers to sell mooring passes, which are entirely customisable in terms of name, time limitation and price-setting. Once a boater is a pass holder, mooring options on BlueMooring will be presented to him/her as free of charge during the validity of the pass, or at a discounted price depending on your needs.
I do not want boaters to pay for moorings through BlueMooring. Is it possible?
BlueMooring supports both free mooring and fee collection.
Can BlueMooring record payments made with rangers outside of the platform?
BlueMooring offers rangers a special interface that allows them to record payments made outside the platform, whether the boater wishes to pay in cash or by payment terminal.
I often need to report data on moorings to higher authorities. Can I export data from BlueMooring?
Besides offering relevant data visualisation through a dashboard, BlueMooring allows marine area managers to export data to XLS format.
Is the mooring management tool BlueMooring accounting-friendly?
In your manager interface, BlueMooring allows to visualise past, on-going and future bookings, and boaters’ information and the receipt associated with each reservation. It also allows you to export these data to XLS format.
My marine area collaborates with ecotourism initiatives such as diving clubs. How can I invite them to use BlueMooring?
In your dedicated interface, a section will allow you to send invitations to diving clubs and other ecotourism organisations you’re used to collaborate with. This invitation will enable them to sign up to BlueMooring and book buoys and moorings for free.
Can I collect information on ecotourism initiatives operating on my marine area?
Ecotourism professionals have their own dedicated interface: for example, when booking a buoy, diving clubs managers have to fill in information on the number of divers they accompany. They also have an access to a form to report irregularities or accidents in the marine area. All this data is collected and available for consultation in your marine area manager interface.
I am not certain that the network quality on my marine area is good enough for using BlueMooring on a mobile device.
You are uncertain of the quality of the network on your site? We invite you to locate your marine area on the GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) Association’s network coverage map and check for 3G coverage depending on mobile operators. You also have the possibility to do a field test to assess the quality of the network in your area. If you want to adopt BlueMooring but the network quality is still an issue, you can invite boaters to book in advance, while they are planning to stay in your marine area. You also have the possibility to install wireless repeaters in your marine area—fixed on buoys or floaters—that boaters can use as a free Internet hotspot linked to the main router used by the staff of your marine area. This solution will soon be implemented by one of our BlueMooring beneficiaries, the Chausey archipelago.
I would like to discuss the idea of developing new features on BlueMooring with you, in order to optimize mooring management on my marine area.
The BlueMooring team is opened to improve its mooring management platform and make it suitable to your needs. Contact us at contact@bluemooring.org so we can talk about how BlueMooring can make your daily tasks easier as a marine area manager.
You have unanswered questions? Contact us
BlueMooring is developed by BlueSeeds, a company addressing the challenge of insufficient funding for marine conservation. BlueSeeds develops financing solutions and help conservationists implement them on the field.
BlueMooring was born out the assessment that marine protected areas—that installed moorings to protect the seagrass bed from anchoring—usually lose more than 50% of their mooring fees because of the way collection is currently handled. Indeed, the MPA staff usually lack the time to collect those fees or boaters moor in the area without being aware of a fee. Furthermore, the fees collected enable MPAs to only finance the collection system itself. The BlueMooring team helps marine protected areas make cost-benefit analyses to assess if our tool can create additional revenues managers can channel towards conservation.
This tool is the first project to emerge as part of the Incubator project funded by the MAVA Foundation.
BlueMooring was born out the assessment that marine protected areas—that installed moorings to protect the seagrass bed from anchoring—usually lose more than 50% of their mooring fees because of the way collection is currently handled. Indeed, the MPA staff usually lack the time to collect those fees or boaters moor in the area without being aware of a fee. Furthermore, the fees collected enable MPAs to only finance the collection system itself. The BlueMooring team helps marine protected areas make cost-benefit analyses to assess if our tool can create additional revenues managers can channel towards conservation.
This tool is the first project to emerge as part of the Incubator project funded by the MAVA Foundation.
