Ecosystem monitoring

Fishing operations can result in unintended interactions with non-target species and associated habitats. To address this, fishery regulators will often implement mandated mitigation measures. For example, the incidental bycatch of seabirds from commercial line and net fishing continues to be a major focus of fishers, managers and conservation groups. The baited hooks of longline vessels and interactions with the net and cables of trawl and gillnet vessels remains a threat to the ongoing sustainability of seabird populations, particularly albatrosses and petrels.

Our team at MVT is leveraging imagery from diverse sources to develop advanced AIML tools for seabird detection and identification. In addition, we have pioneered an AIML tool specifically designed for the automatic detection of the on-vessel seabird mitigation device known as a bird scaring line (or tori line) from EM footage. This technology will aid in compliance monitoring and the assessment of the effectivity of these mitigation measures. Our software shows exceptional accuracy and can handle variations in image quality, such as water droplets on the lens, and different environmental conditions, spanning both day and night settings.

In addition, MVT are using on vessel camera imagery to develop software to detect and count seabirds both in flight and on the water in near real-time. This functionality will monitor their presence associated with fishing activities and other offshore developments.

The ongoing development of MVT’s AIML technology will significantly contribute to advancing the quantity and quality of data collected to assess the performance of mitigation measures and to improve the knowledge of interactions between protected species and fishing vessels and/or offshore developments.