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Sustainable Fishing Challenges / Feed

This group welcomes those in our marine conservation tech community to collaborate together on challenges related to sustainable fishing practices. Inspired by this thread focusing on minimising the impact of trawling gear on seafloor environments, the Sustainable Fishing Challenges group is a place to share resources, pose challenges, brainstorm creative solutions, and begin collaborative projects.

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discussion

Drop-deployed HydroMoth

Sol Milne

2 April 2024 10:20am

Hi all, I'm looking to deploy a HydroMoth, on a drop-deployed frame, from a stationary USV, alongside a suite of marine chemical sensors, to add biodiversity collection to our...

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Sol Milne

15 April 2024 6:53am

Hi Matthew,

Thanks for your advice, this is really helpful!

I'm planning to use it in a seagrass meadow survey for a series of ~20 drops/sites to around 30 m, recording for around 10 minutes each time, in Cornwall, UK.

At this stage I reckon we won't exceed 30 m, but based on your advice, I think this sounds like not the best setup for the surveys we want to try.

We will try the Aquarian H1a, attached to the Zoom H1e unit, through a PVC case. This is what Aquarian recommended to me when I contacted them too.

Thanks for the advice, to be honest the software component is what I was most interested in when it came to the AudioMoth- is there any other open source software you would recommend for this?

Best wishes,

Sol
 

Matthew Duggan

21 April 2024 7:10pm

Hey Sol, 

No problem at all. Depending on your configuration, the Audiomoth software would have to work on a PCB with an ESP32 chip which is the unit on the audiomoth/hydromoth, so you would have to make a PCB centered around this chip. You could mimic the functionality of the audiomoth software on another chip, like on a raspberry pi with python's pyaudio library for example. The problem you would have is that the H1A requires phantom power, so it's not plug and play. I'm not too aware with the H1e, but maybe you can control the microphone through the recorder that is programmable through activations by the RPi (not that this is the most efficient MCU for this application, but it is user friendly). A simpler solution might be to just record continuously and play a sound or take notes of when your 10 min deployment starts. I think it should last you >6 hours with a set of lithium energizer batteries. You may want to think about putting a penetrator on the PVC housing for a push button or switch to start when you deploy. They make a few waterproof options. 

Just somethign else that occured to me, but if you're dropping these systems, you'll want to ensure that the system isn't wobbling in the seagrass as that will probably be all you will hear on the recordings, especially if you plan to deploy shallower. For my studies in Curacao, we aim to be 5lbs negative, but this all depends on your current and surface action. You might also want to think about the time of day you're recording biodiversity in general. I may suggest recording the site for a bit (a couple days or a week) prior to your study to see what you should account for (e.g. tide flow/current/anthropogenic disturbance) and determine diel patterning of vocalizations you are aiming to collect if subsampling at 10 minutes. 

Cheers, 

Matt

Alex Rogers

3 May 2024 12:55pm

Hi Sol,

If the maximum depth is 30m, it would be worth experimenting with HydroMoth in this application especially if the deployment time is short. As Matt says, the air-filed case means it is not possible to accurately calibrate the signal strength due to the directionality of the response. For some applications, this doesn't matter. For others, it may.

Another option for longer/deeper deployments would be an Aquarian H2D hydrophone which will plug directly into AudioMoth Dev or AudioMoth 1.2 (with the 3.5mm jack added). You can then use any appropriately sized battery pack.

If you also connect a magnetic switch, as per the GPS board, you can stop and start recording from outside the housing with the standard firmware.

Alex

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discussion

WILDLABS AWARDS 2024 - FinDrop: Accessible Acoustic Monitoring for Mesophotic Marine Environments

Matthew Duggan

5 April 2024 10:22pm

Hello everyone! I am honored to introduce our interdisciplinary team, which has experienced exponential growth over the past year, comprising individuals such as @...

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Liz Ferguson

7 April 2024 6:07pm

Congrats @MattyD797 and team!!! We do a lot of work in the underwater bioacoustic realm and your tool certainly seems like it would be a great instrumental addition to the community. Look forward to learning more about your project!

Liz

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discussion

Species ID Needs?

Nadya Mamoozadeh

19 February 2024 7:55pm

Hi all! New to the WILDLABS space and interested in learning from others about species identification needs in fisheries and wildlife, ranging from monitoring and enforcement to...

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Scott Allee

23 February 2024 2:10pm

Hello Nadia,

A forensic genetic challenge  exists when DNA is destroyed by processes used in manufacturing of derivative animal products, preventing law enforcement in identification of protected species.  Alternative methods such as lipid profiles or isotope analysis unique to certain species may be possible but require voucher specimens that may or may not be available and methods that have not been tested or peer reviewed. Examples below:

  1. derivative products made from endangered shark squalene (eg. Liver oil capsules).
  2. derivative products made from lion bone and tiger bone (eg. lion bone cake and tiger wine).

    This is a law enforcement issue and would like to discuss possible solutions. 
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careers

Senior Software Engineer, Skylight

Alex Rood

21 February 2024 3:44pm

Join the mission to help tackle IUU fishing with cutting-edge tech! The Allan Institute for AI is seeking a Senior Software Engineer to accelerate efforts to make sure those working to restore our ocean have the tools...

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discussion

Hydromoth for coastal & offshore surveying

Sol Milne

16 November 2023 7:36am

Hi all! I'm interested in deploying a Hydromoth on an Uncrewed Surface Vehicle (USV) to collect acoustic data for biodiversity analysis, for coastal and offshore marine surveys....

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Harold Tay

18 November 2023 1:47am

Hi Sol,

I think your concern is well placed.  The pros typically tow an array of hydrophones, in its simpler configuration it looks like a long fat rubber hose containing maybe a dozen transducers feeding their electrical signals to a recording unit back on the ship.  All this is done to reduce noise from the ship, from waves crashing, and flow noise.  The multiple transducers can also be electronically tuned to be directional so that it can be "pointed" away from a noise source (like the ship).

In your position, I would just try the simplest thing that could work, then fix the problems as they arise.  It could be you may need to be dead in the water while recording.  To address surface noise (slapping waves, wind), you could mount the hydromoth low down on a spar buoy, which you tow into position.

 

Best of luck, it sounds like an interesting project (c:

Jamie Macaulay

19 December 2023 2:20pm

Hydromoths are great for the price but they do not have the most streamlined housing and audio quality won't be as good as something like a SoundTrap or really any recorder with a proper hydrophone and 16-bit +DAQ system.

If you can afford it, this is an excellent SoundTrap based towed autonomous system NOAA have been using. It might work towed behind an autonomous vehicle

Alternatively, if you can have something inside the vehicle, a simple tape recorder (e.g. Tascam DR40X) and hydrophone on cable  will provide excellent sound quality. You could also use something like a Raspberry Pi with audio focussed ADC hat to record but that would require a bit more programming. Even consider a standard AudioMoth and plug a proper hydrophone into the audio jack - this would still have a 12-bit ADC but would provide better sound quality than a hydromoth (hydrophones are more omnidirectional and there's no air filled causing reflections and attenuation)

Kim Hendrikse

20 December 2023 6:57am

If you are considering an external microphone and a towed system, then you would also be in a position to consider a raspberry pi with an external microphone with sbts-aru. Another option:



 

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careers

Senior Spatial Ecologist

The Charles Darwin Foundation

24 August 2023 11:22pm

The Charles Darwin Foundation for the Galapagos Islands (CDF) is recruiting a Senior Spatial Ecologist to join our shark research team and strengthen the ongoing long-term research on shark population ecology and...

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Link

CCI Defining Destructive Fishing Project: Update - YouTube

Stephanie O'Donnell

19 June 2023 4:26pm

"This seminar detailed our achievements to date in building an expert-led and consensus-based definition of “destructive fishing” and our subsequent development of a monitoring framework, for adaptation to national and local contexts. We thank our attendees for their time and insightful questions." - Jack Murphy

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careers

Fisheries Analyst (Pacific) 

Global Fishing Watch

15 June 2023 12:15pm

With a focus on using and combining vessel tracking data, other satellite derived datasets and big data methods and AI generated estimates related to vessel identity and activity, the Fisheries Analyist with Global...

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careers

Data Scientist (Geospatial), Global Fishing Watch

Global Fishing Watch

19 April 2023 10:34am

Global Fishing Watch are looking for a data scientist to join the Research and Innovation team. Help us tackle geospatial data fusion problems to produce the most complete picture of human activity at sea.

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Link

Global Fishing Watch's Marine Manager Raises the Bar on Ocean Monitoring

Carly Batist

13 January 2023 12:09am

An online portal to help governments, researchers, conservation advocates & others monitor activity throughout the world’s marine environment, as well as design & implement protected areas. The Marine Manager is now open to anyone. Marine Manager provides users with a trove of human activity and environmental insights.

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Link

Crowdfunding Aerial Baseline Study of Ghost Gear in Koh Phangan, Thailand

Sol Milne

18 December 2022 11:06am

We are developing a project in Thailand, using drones to locate lost & discarded fishing gear across Koh Phangan, Thailand.
We're 86% there & only need $1500 to get us over the line. If you can help us, we would really appreciate it!
This project uses drones to create a baseline survey of lost fishing gear & document effects of entanglement on marine species.
We are working with Core Sea & Koh Phangan Sea Guardians to develop a locally led method for ongoing monitoring for discarded fishing gear, using drones.
Thank you, Sol, Tania & Kat

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discussion

Sea turtle monitoring

evelynbritez

11 February 2021 11:44am

Hello everyone. I would like to know if anyone has suggestions on techniques to monitor sea turtles in areas where the density might be low and the sites are hard to access...

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Nida Al Fulaij

13 December 2021 6:19pm

Hi Evelyn

 

Not sure if you've come across this paper about green turtles in Turks and Caicos

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmars.2020.00690/full

Frank van der Most

18 March 2022 11:53pm

Hi Evelyn,

I learned of the torsooi database to collect sea turtle data. The database per se may not be that interesting as an asnwer to your question but I know they have developed software that recognizes individual sea turtles based on pictures of their heads. The pattern of the head segments allows this.

If you manage to make pictures remotely, by land-based cameras or drones or whatever, this may help monitoring the individuals.

In my humble and non-expert opinion, this software has the potential to do away with metal tags.

cheers

Frank

Aadithya Prakash

18 May 2022 6:03am

Hey Evelyn,

 

I work on building self-powered buoys that collect various sensor data (sea surface and sub-surface) that can be sent back to mainland over cellular/satellite comms. Are these nesting sites close to shore or are they relatively far out at sea?

 

Best,

Aadu

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article

News: The Latest in Conservation Tech

WILDLABS Team

10 March 2022 12:00am

Check out this round-up of three of the latest news stories from the conservation tech world.  See more conservation tech news by subscribing to our bi-monthly digest. 

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article

Download Now: The Technical Difficulties Editorial Series

WILDLABS Team

19 January 2022 12:00am

Our first WILDLABS Editorial Series is now available for download! Read the full Technical Difficulties collection and explore stories of challenges, failures, and lessons learned from the conservation tech community....

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article

Technical Difficulties: Tracking Thunderbird

Ellie Warren

8 October 2021 12:00am

In her article for the Technical Failures Editorial Series, WILDLABS' Ellie Warren discusses how the loss of one tagged sea turtle represents the wider challenges faced by conservation efforts, and how the collaborative...

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event

Webinar: Implementing SMART in the Marine Environment

SMART

20 May 2021 12:00am

This webinar from SMART will provide examples of SMART's marine applications via several diverse case studies, and share exciting new SMART developments on the horizon in the coming year, including targeted integrations...

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article

Announcing the 2021 CLP Team Award Winners

Conservation Leadership Programme

17 May 2021 12:00am

Our friends at the Conservation Leadership Programme are proud to announce their 2021 CLP Team Award recipients! We'll be featuring interviews with some CLP winners about their projects, the technology they're using,...

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discussion

Recent articles/resources

Carly Batist

14 April 2021 1:31pm

Hi all, Just some things I've come across on Twitter or through Wildlabs that weren't in a thread yet, for everyone's reference! https://fiscot.org/the-role-of-...

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