Sustainable Seas
Image courtesy of Environmental Defense Fund
The quest for sustainability in fisheries is experiencing a sea change, thanks to the use of digital technologies both old and new. In New England's rich and storied waters, the conventional methods that have guided commercial fishing for centuries are now slowly blending with innovations like video monitoring, artificial intelligence (AI), advanced sensors, improved fish finders and GPS integrations.
And that's just the gear on a fishing boat. In the more rarified waters of NOAA Fisheries, researchers employ aerial and sail drones, satellite fish tags, ROV's, Acoustics, Genetic Analysis and well-funded research ships. Details on all that here.
Video Monitoring: a window over the deck and under the waves
One of the biggest advances has been video monitoring on fishing vessels. This puts an unblinking eye on the entire fishing process, from hauls and handling to sorting and storage. It ensures that accurate data on catch sizes and species composition is captured and relayed (potentially) in real-time, fortifying stock assessments and fostering well-informed management strategies.
“Remember when Black Sea Bass quotas here were tiny because of low stock assessments, but a trawl would come up seething with a ton of them that had to be dumped? Some video evidence might have helped set the record straight.”
Video technology on deck can enhance quota management, recording evidence that minimizes the risk of overfishing. The institutional commitment to data-driven decisions makes getting more, better and faster data important.
Down at the business end of the lines, underwater video cams can enable real-time adjustment of gear for performance, find problems that wouldn't otherwise be apparent until the gear came up, see what's going into the cod end and what's making it out through the mesh panels. SafetyNet Technologies in the UK offers the CatchCam system worldwide, and other similar systems are available in Asia and Europe, along with dozens of "smart net" sensors (see Sensors and Sonar below.)
Video courtesy of Environmental Defense Fund
Artificial Intelligence: A Smart Approach to Bycatch
Even more revolutionary is AI's role in smart monitoring systems that recognize and flag bycatch. Traditionally done in person by government monitors holding clipboards, and crew sorting and tossing the bycatch back, the job is tough, time consuming, onerous, expensive and slow. But when you tether those deck video cams to a laptop running an AI-powered fish recognition program? Just ask these guys in Maine.
The system is a step forward, and over in the UK researchers have taken a major leap. An AI-empowered trawling net designed to help prevent bycatch uses video cams and robotic systems (which fit on existing nets of all sizes) to do the job. Welcome to SmarTrawl.
Sensors and Sonar: The Precision Hunt
Targeting fish schools with precision was once a skill honed through generational wisdom and experience. Then in 1948, Kiyotaka Furuno invented and commercialized the Furuno Fish Finder. In the 76 years since, sonar technology for fisheries has matured, integrating bottom, side and forward scanning capabilities with GPS nav data, depth and temperatures. The last few years have produced "smart nets" outfitted with scanners, trawl positioning modules, acoustic sensors and more that send detailed info to the bridge. And, yes, operational AI is being gradually baked into all of it.
Video courtesy of Environmental Defense Fund
And the Fish Shall Teach us
Not surprisingly, environmental groups like The Nature Conservancy and Environmental Defense Fund are promoting and contributing to these efforts, leveraging their institutional connections and donor bases.
According to The Nature Conservancy's Fishnet.ai program, in 2022 "More than a thousand commercial fishing boats carry electronic monitoring systems, which use on-board cameras to track catch and provide accountability in the global seafood market. These systems produce large volumes of video data that are screened by trained human reviewers. Over the next ten years, the number of boats carrying electronic monitoring systems is expected to grow by 10-20x, outpacing current review capacity."
Also over the next ten years, AI capabilities and capacities are expected to grow exponentially. That means, most likely, enhanced screening and machine learning capabilities requiring less human intervention, creating an ever larger digital library of saltwater species and marine environmental data.