This project will deliver an in-water sorting device for use with trawl gear which is expected to enable fishers to eliminate bycatch of unwanted fish, improving fishing efficiency and sustainability.
£364,909
18 months
Smartrawl is a solution to the wasteful and illegal global practice of discards and bycatch in trawl fisheries. Fish and other marine animals are caught indiscriminately, and unwanted animals are thrown back overboard, mostly dead. Trawls are simply not selective to the range of species caught. Smartrawl aims to solve this problem by allowing fishers to select the size and species wanted, releasing all other animals back into their natural environment unharmed.
Smartrawl has three components: a stereo camera, taking pictures of animals in the trawl; a computer, with Artificial Intelligence (AI) to determine the species and their size; and a gate to catch or release animals. In this project, AI algorithms were developed to detect, recognise and size eight of the most common fish caught by UK trawlers: cod, haddock, whiting, hake, saithe, anglerfish, Nephrops and flatfish. These were then incorporated into a new AI-enabled microcomputer which also controlled the camera, lights and a latch which enabled the gate. The project also built the first effective gate and latch. Trials of the integrated system were carried out to demonstrate how it could be installed, deployed and recovered at sea. Video evidence was also obtained of the gate working to catch and release fish, controlled effectively by the latch. For the first time, we now have an integrated complete Smartrawl system that can be fitted to UK fishing vessels. We now need to demonstrate that it can work as intended to reduce discards and bycatch.
Fisheries Innovation & Sustainability