Second phase of test of video counting of fish underway by UMass Dartmouth SEAFOOD.COM NEWS [Satndard-Times] By Steve Urbon - November 11, 2013 - The black hull of owner Danny Eilertsens fishing vessel Justice emerged in the distance on Tuesday as a half dozen marine researchers from UMass Dartmouth waited on Union Wharf in Fairhaven. Eilertsens boat is playing host to the second round of testing of a radically different method of counting fish, a notoriously difficult thing to do, but the thing that everybody says they want and need. The 82-foot Justice tied up and a truck from New Bedford Ship Supply unloaded 10 days worth of provisions, one of many in-kind contributions that fishing-related businesses make for the sake of science. Among those climbing aboard was Dr. Kevin Stokesbury, who had been making refinements to the first experimental gear that was tried out in April. The idea is simple but the execution is difficult: Lower a net to the bottom equipped with lights and video cameras, then get video of the fish as they pass through the net and escape the other end, which has been kept open. Then count the fish via the video. Now lower the net again and this time actually catch the fish. Then count the actual fish on the boat and compare results with the video method. This isnt easy. The net has to be perfectly deployed — and new acoustic sensors on the barn doors on either side will tell the scientists exactly how wide the net is on the bottom. The net cant kick up a lot of the sea bottom, because no one can see anything through billows of sediment. For that, Stokesbury said, the net has been adjusted to have as little contact with the floor as possible. Counting the fish is another challenge. As yet there isnt any fish recognition software, though Stokesbury would welcome it. Instead, he will personally count the fish, a demanding job since there are dozens of species swimming together. And since so many of them are similar to each other, Stokesbury holds out little hope that computer recognition would work well except for distinctive species such as spiny dogfish. (Dogfish, he offered, is so oily that you can feel the oil coming out on your skin after you eat it.) Four UMass researchers and four crew members, including Capt. Ronnie Borjeson, are about 200 miles out to sea as you read this, spending hours setting the net, monitoring the cameras and counting fish inside the boat, which in November ought to be quite a challenge. Owner Eilertsen remarked that if the equipment works as it is supposed to, any results will be a good thing. Fishermen have been critical of NOAA Fisheries scientists for years for being inept fishermen, with the result being bad data upon which fisheries managers make decisions. The subject comes up again and again: calls for more and better science that include the direct participants in the fishing industry who may not have advanced degrees in marine science, but have a deep understanding of the ocean and the fish. Knowledge, for example, such as knowing that yellowtail flounder come up off the bottom at night, rising in the water column then settling back down as day breaks (which is why this team will be working only in the daylight, said Stokesbury). The UMass School for Marine Science and Technology has been here before, with Stokesburys apparatus for dropping a camera to the ocean floor and directly counting the scallops that are now the mainstay of the New Bedford fishery. Counting fish swimming in the ocean is a much tougher job. But if it works, everyone might cut down the fighting and agree about what to do next. They cant very well keep going as they were, because it simply didnt work and doesnt work. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Maggie Raymond Seafood News 1-781-861-1441 Email comments to maggieraymond@seafood
Posted on: Mon, 11 Nov 2013 18:56:59 +0000
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