Author Archives: EM Info Admin
Supplementary Q&A from our August 2019 Webinar
EM Info Admin
Published August 13, 2019
Here are a few questions that we didn’t get to on our August 1st webinar, along with answers provided by our presenters after-the-fact. Please feel free to reach out to them individually if you have additional questions or suggestions.
Presenters were Brett Alger (NOAA), Farron Wallace (NOAA), and Mark Hager (GMRI).
Q to Farron: There has been significant development of AI to identify fish through the NOAA Fisheries Automated Image Analysis Strategic Initiative. Have you investigated any of those products, which are currently available on GitHub. If so, what were your experiences and reasons for developing a parallel track?
A: Our efforts are working in concert with the AIASI including VIAME . Much of AISI development work is for under-water imagery that… Read More »
‘Save the Date’ for the 3rd National Electronic Monitoring Workshop Series
EM Info Admin
Published August 13, 2019
The 3rd National Electronic Monitoring Workshop Series will engage and educate new participants and foster an environment for collaboration across different fisheries, fishermen and other stakeholders regarding the opportunities and challenges associated with electronic monitoring.
NOAA Fisheries announces two workshops focused on the use and implementation of electronic monitoring (EM) for U.S. fisheries. The first workshop will be held on the east coast with the support of the New England Fishery Management Council on November 13 – 14, 2019 at the Wentworth by the Sea in New Castle, New Hampshire.
A second workshop will be held in early 2020 in Seattle, Washington with the support of the Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission. Workshop registration will be free and will open… Read More »
Designing Machine Learning into EM Programs: Recent advances and insights from two regions
EM Info Admin
Published July 8, 2019
Please register today and join us for this August 1st webinar.
Commercial fisheries are moving to implement electronic monitoring (EM) for fishery-dependent data collection. Among the substantive barriers for broad-scale implementation, however, are the high costs of video review, transmission, and storage. Currently, EM programs rely on labor-intensive (thus costly) processes, and there is a need to improve the timeliness of data management associated with new EM data streams.
This webinar will examine advances in incorporating artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), provide some lessons-learned, and give insights on how to develop AI-friendly EM programs. Drawing on recent developments and examples from Alaska and New England, it will be of interest to fishermen, fishery managers, scientists, data managers, equipment and… Read More »
RFP: Machine Vision for Speciation and Enumeration of Discarded Catch in the West Coast Groundfish Trawl Fishery
EM Info Admin
Published April 29, 2019
EDF is seeking a suitably qualified technology and services provider to work with us and our fishermen partners to design, implement, and test a ‘smart’ catch handling protocol in the West Coast groundfish bottom trawl fishery that focuses on the development of a machine vision algorithm that is capable of identifying and counting discarded species in the fishery. Working with one fisherman partner based out of Warrenton, Oregon, the provider will co-design a catch handling protocol which will enable the integration of a camera-based machine vision system into the process. The project partner already has a working conveyor belt that is part of the existing catch handling process and we therefore expect there to be minimal alteration of this physical… Read More »
RFP: Underwater Smart Cameras to Enable Real Time Bycatch Avoidance
EM Info Admin
Published April 23, 2019
Environmental Defense Fund Smart Boat Initiative
Request for Proposals: 2019 Fisheries Electronic Technology Service Provider UNDERWATER SMART CAMERAS TO ENABLE REAL TIME BYCATCH AVOIDANCE (PHASE 1) DATE: April 17th, 2019 POINT OF CONTACT: Christopher Cusack; ccusack@edf.org
EDF is seeking a suitably qualified technology and services provider (provider) to work with us and our fishermen partners to design, implement, and test a set of AI tools and physical technologies that improve the automatic identification of real time bycatch in trawl fisheries. This project encompasses the work outlined in phase 1 in the previous section: the proof of concept and efficacy test for the development of AI for the underwater identification of bycatch species entering or passing through a trawl net. We… Read More »
RFP: Wireless Activity Recognition
EM Info Admin
Published April 23, 2019
Environmental Defense Fund Smart Boat Initiative
Request for Proposals: 2019 Fisheries Electronic Technology Service Provider DATE: April 18th, 2019 POINT OF CONTACT: Christopher Cusack; ccusack@edf.org
EDF is seeking a suitably qualified technology and services provider (provider) to work with us and our fishermen partners to design, implement, and test a set of physical technologies, data management protocols, and data analysis methodologies that improve the efficiency of the data storage, transmission, management, and analysis process on the West Coast of the U.S. Leveraging the existing data management protocol as a point of reference we aim to conduct a rigorous economic (costs, time implications) and technical (accuracy, consistency) comparison of a next generation system, one that includes these three attributes:
1) Wireless… Read More »
RFP: Rockfish Hook & Line EM Pilot
EM Info Admin
Published April 23, 2019
Environmental Defense Fund Smart Boat Initiative
Request for Proposals: 2019 Electronic Technology Service Provider Rockfish Hook and Line Electronic Monitoring Pilot (Phase 1) Date: April 18, 2019 Point of Contact: Melissa Mahoney, Policy Manager, US Oceans/Pacific; mmahoney@edf.org
EDF is seeking a provider to install, deploy and service EM systems for a pilot project with small (30’ or less) Open Access or LE Fixed gear vessels in the Monterey Bay area of central California. These vessels are part of an Exempted Fishing Permit (EFP) approved by the Pacific Fishery Management Council (PFMC) and granted by NOAA Fisheries in January 2019.
The EFP allows for fishing with mid-water horizontal line gear that is ‘flown’ (trolled) inside an area… Read More »
Job Posting: Video Analyst, New England Groundfish Electronic Monitoring Program
EM Info Admin
Published April 22, 2019
Position Location: Flexible
Start Date: Immediately
Type: PTE – 6 – 12 month contract
Compensation: Competitive rates, commensurate with experience.
Terms of Employment: This is a part time on-call position. During peak fishing times the part time position will be based on ~20 hours per week and will require flexible working hours. However, this is only an estimate and may change. Flexible working hours may be required for this position. The number of hours per week will depend on the number of vessels fishing on any given week and how much data is collected and retrieved. Based on the program in previous years, the on-call hours fluctuate with more hours required during April – September.
Position training will take place… Read More »
Invitation to EDF’s Smart Boat Webinar
EM Info Admin
Published April 2, 2019
The Environmental Defense Fund would like to invite you to participate in a webinar on Monday, April 22nd at 1:00 PM Eastern Standard Time to discuss the recent launch of our Smart Boat Initiative .
This webinar will explore our vision for revolutionizing sustainable fishing in the digital age, share lessons learned from testing technologies on the water and provide a glimpse into the Smart Boat Initiative’s next steps.
We are pleased to be joined by Katie McGinty, Senior Vice President of Oceans at EDF; Christopher Cusack, Research and Development at EDF’s Fishery Solutions Center; Johanna Thomas, Interim Director of EDF’s U.S. Oceans Program; and Captain Bob Dooley, veteran commercial fisherman. We will also have a discussion during the webinar and welcome participants to… Read More »
Design Considerations to Optimize Monitoring for Canada’s Pacific Region Fisheries
EM Info Admin
Published March 22, 2019
McElderry, H and Meintzer, P. 2019. Unpublished report prepared for Fisheries and Oceans Canada by Archipelago Marine Fisheries Ltd., Victoria, BC. Canada. 40p.
Executive Summary
This paper is intended for the broad community of stakeholders who are involved in the design, implementation, operation, and evaluation of fishery monitoring programs. Although we focus on Canada’s Pacific Region as a case study for this paper, the methodology and observations we present apply to any fishery that is attempting to improve their catch monitoring systems. It is important to clarify that this paper is not intended to judge the adequacy of existing fishery monitoring systems, as we recognize that the choices made are often a trade-off between many factors…. Read More »