Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - SMARTFISH (Smart fisheries technologies for an efficient, compliant and environmentally friendly fishing sector)

Teaser

\"With an increasing pressure on marine resource extraction mounting with resultant calls for sustainability in the sector, the goal of the SMARTFISH project is to develop, test and promote a number of high-tech systems that will optimize resource efficiency, improve automatic...

Summary

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With an increasing pressure on marine resource extraction mounting with resultant calls for sustainability in the sector, the goal of the SMARTFISH project is to develop, test and promote a number of high-tech systems that will optimize resource efficiency, improve automatic data collection, provide evidence of compliance with fishery regulations and reduce the ecological impact of the sector on the marine environment - all of which are critical if we are to reach not only sustainable development goal 14 to \"\"...conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development\"\", but also contribute to sustainable food security for a growing global population. To ensure this, SMARTFISH exploits and further develops existing technological innovations in machine vision, camera technology, data processing, machine learning, artificial intelligence, big data analysis, smartphones/tablets, LED technology, acoustics and ROV technology. The developments, once implemented by the commercial fishing sector, will assist this industry throughout Europe in making informed decisions during pre-catch, catch, and post-catch phases of the harvesting process.

SMARTFISH will also provide new data for stock assessment from commercial fishing and improve the quality and quantity of data that comes from traditional assessment surveys. This provides the potential for more accurate assessment of fish stocks and allows for the assessment of stocks that are currently data-poor and therefore difficult to manage. In addition, the project will access automatically collected catch data from the fisheries which will also allow for management regulations to gain higher compliance rates.

The SMARTFISH systems, once fully implemented in the fishing sector and taken up by the industry will:

1. Assist commercial fishers in making informed decisions during pre-catch, catching, and port-Catch phases of the extraction process. This improves catch efficiencies and compositions in fisheries across the EU, leading to improved economic efficiency while reducing unintended Fish mortality, unnecessary fishing pressure and ecosystem damage.

2. Provide new data for stock assessment from commercial fishing and improve the quality and quantity of data that comes from traditional assessment surveys. This provides more accurate assessment of currently assessed stocks and allow the assessment of data-poor stocks.

3. Permit the automatic collection of catch data to ensure compliance with fisheries management systems.

The SMARTFISH systems will be tested and demonstrated in several EU fisheries. This contributes to promoting the uptake uptake of the systems by extraction sector and fisheries agencies. An interdisciplinary consortium with Technology developers and instrument suppliers, fishing companies, research and fisheries management institutes and universities will realize SMARTFISH. They are active at national and international Levels and well placed to Ensure the uptake of SMARTFISH systems by fishing industry and fisheries managers and stock assessment scientists.
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Work performed

Smartfish has already, after 18 months, started seeing results and the project is moving forward according to plan in a satisfactory manner.

In WP 1, the most suitable sensor types to be tested have been identified at this point, namely low cost video camera (2D), 3D cameras, and acoustic echosounders. Furthermore, we have designed, built and characterized/calibrated the hardware performances of two echosounder prototypes that will be able to identify species and estimate the individual size. In addition, we have designed the housing for the echosounder and video cameras to be installed in the Bay of Biscay and Mediterranean and Black sea’s purse seiners in the test phase of the project and collected echograms of small pelagic species for the development of the acoustic algorithms for the estimation of the individual size and species discrimination, and integrated these algorithms in the echosounder prototypes.

In WP 2, we have built the first prototype of the cable based real-time camera system (DTU), dry tested it, and prepared it for onboard testing, including the use of an optimized acquisition scene obtained with a coloured canvas sheet as background for the recording for improving observations of Nephrops through the use of contrasting materials. In addition, we have adapted the UTOFIA camera (SINTEF Digital) to fit on a trawl. Also, based on data captured in the project, algorithms for size and species identification based on 3D images are being successfully developed and tested. Finally, the cable independent 3D embedded smart camera from our partner MARPORT, which consists of an acoustic (sonar) and vision (camera and light) system, has had supporting software to view and analyse the data collected by the cable independent 3D embedded smart camera successfully developed and tested.

In the third WP, delivered the Smartgear prototype and donelaboratory experiments on how fish react to light, as well as done sea trials investigating how light can be used to modify the selection of otter trawls.

WP 4 is similarly progressing according to plan, with promising results. We have delivered a prototype of CatchScanner, which has also been tested, with very early code for weight estimation and species identification for a few species. We have also developed Imaging procedure and sampling methodology for CatchSnap, and the prototype for CatchMonitor has also been tested, with early code for species identification of many species developed.

In WP 5, the development of data handling systems is in focus, and so far, we have created the FishData system specification. This is a document that defines the scope, requirements, and architecture of the FishData systems. Additionally, it provides an introduction to the field of big data in fisheries, including a list of use cases targeted at the project\'s main stakeholder groups. We have also developed several components of the onboard and onshore infrastructures, in particular modules for secure acquisition, transfer, preprocessing and storage of data from fishing vessels. Finally, we have completed an internal survey among the project participants concerning the data sources and data types that are (or will become) available in the project.

The testing workpackages 6-10 are naturally enough not yet progressing much, in that they rely heavily on the results of the technology development work packages 1-5. However, some have already started preliminary and preparatory work towards the testing phase of the technological innovations developed in the Smartifsh project.

Final results

Work towards going beyond the state of the art, and reaching the potential impacts of the project, is in progress and that no delays are expected. We have developed a PDE (Plan for Dissemination and Exploitation), and updated it for the first time M14 of the project period.

Website & more info

More info: http://www.smartfishh2020.eu.