International workshop on the use of autonomous unmanned vehicles for assessment of fish stocks

Assessment of fish stocks, and surveillance of marine ecosystems in general, is a prerequisite for sustainable harvesting of marine resources. The assessment methods in use today are heavily reliant on the use of fishing and research vessels, not to mention manpower, in order to gather data for later processing. This work is time consuming and resource demanding. SINTEF Fisheries and Aquaculture, together with the Centre for Autonomous Marine Operations and Systems (AMOS) at NTNU, wish to increase the efficiency and coverage of the data collection processes by using unmanned, autonomous vehicles (drones). Such technology is already being actively researched and developed for use in other sectors, e.g. the petroleum industry, and the potential for technology transfer is obvious. To that end, SINTEF and AMOS will co-host a workshop in which to discuss the R&D challenges that must be met in order to realise this vision. Participants will be invited from both academic institutions, research institutes and industry.

Assessment of fish stocks, and surveillance of marine ecosystems in general, is a prerequisite for sustainable harvesting of marine resources. The assessment methods in use today are heavily reliant on the use of fishing and research vessels, not to mention manpower, in order to gather data for later processing. This work is time consuming and resource demanding. SINTEF Fisheries and Aquaculture, together with the Centre for Autonomous Marine Operations and Systems (AMOS) at NTNU, wish to increase the efficiency and coverage of the data collection processes by using unmanned, autonomous vehicles (drones). Such technology is already being actively researched and developed for use in other sectors, e.g. the petroleum industry, and the potential for technology transfer is obvious. To that end, SINTEF and AMOS will co-host a workshop in which to discuss the R&D challenges that must be met in order to realise this vision. This workshop will be used to connect with academic institutions, research institutes and industry - both national and international - and to build a consortium for a planned grant application to the Horizon 2020 EU research programme.