KAILUA, HI and WASHINGTON (October 13, 2022) – Ai.Fish, a software startup developing artificial intelligence (AI) tools for marine conservation and ocean science, and the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) Oceans Technology Solutions team, are pleased to present results from their collaboration to move AI technologies toward widespread deployment for automated fisheries monitoring.
The SmartPass initiative, pioneered by EDF in 2019, aims to develop computer vision and machine learning technologies to provide near real-time reporting of fishing activity in small-scale fisheries by automatically counting active fishing vessels. Small-scale fisheries make up 50% of the world’s fishing activity but monitoring is much more difficult than large-scale commercial fisheries.
A key limitation to deploying many modern AI technologies is the reliance upon high-performance computers to perform computation-heavy algorithmic processing. In recent years, “Edge AI ” has emerged as an alternative paradigm, which is able to function independently from a central server or cloud. This offers the promise of performing AI processing on-site using specialized low-power hardware while often yielding results in near real-time.
Beginning in September 2021, Ai.Fish and EDF partnered to bring SmartPass to the edge, with the goal of deploying vessel counting algorithms onto low-power embedded computers the size of a human hand. Ai.Fish and EDF worked together to annotate data, train AI models, test and validate Edge devices from multiple vendors, develop efficient AI models that can perform real-time video processing, and bench test results on real-world data. This process wasn’t always straightforward, requiring creative solutions to accommodate hardware and algorithm constraints. The end result is a fisheries monitoring system that can provide accurate, automated, and real-time data on the number of fishing vessels in a particular region, without requiring expensive hardware or high-bandwidth network access.
As of August, 2022, the Edge-enabled SmartPass system developed by Ai.Fish has demonstrated feasibility of all key components, including an accurate vessel counter with a false alarms rate of well below one per hour, object tracking software that is real-time friendly on resource-constrained edge computers, and a process for rapidly re-training vessel detection models to respond to performance deficiencies. The software has been deployed on a modest edge device at acceptable frame rates of approximately 10 frames per second on reduced-capability hardware and more than 30 frames per second on target hardware.
The results from this initial project have been deemed a successful minimum viable product (MVP), and are currently being expanded upon to enable large-scale deployment. Ai.Fish and EDF will continue to work together to scale the system in 2022 and 2023. Next steps include a field deployment and live testing of algorithms, and development of near real-time reporting capabilities given low-bandwidth wireless connectivity. This will be an important step in validating the technology and ultimately scaling the SmartPass system to global deployment.
“We are thrilled to be working with Ai.Fish on this project,” said Christopher Cusack, EDF Oceans Technology Solutions Director. “Their cutting-edge technology has the potential to revolutionize fisheries monitoring globally by providing good data that can be linked to good management, helping to improve the climate resilience of fisheries and the communities that depend on them.
“This partnership is a perfect example of the tangible benefits that AI technologies can have in fisheries and on environmental projects more broadly,” said Ai.Fish CEO and Co-founder, Jimmy Freese. “We are excited to be working with EDF on this important project and to continue to expand our offerings in related areas.”
About Ai.Fish
Ai.Fish is a software startup developing Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools for marine conservation and ocean science. With deep expertise in AI, machine learning, computer vision, and Edge computing, Ai.Fish is actively looking for partnerships that expand the use of AI in sustainability-related projects.
About EDF
The Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) is a leading international nonprofit organization that creates transformative solutions to the most serious environmental problems. EDF uses science, economics, law and markets to find practical and lasting ways to stop pollution and build a healthier environment. For more information, visit www.edf.org.
Press Contacts
Jimmy Freese, CEO and Co-founder info@ai.fish www.ai.fish
Christoper Cusack, Ph.D., Director, Oceans Technology Solutions www.edf.org
