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Marine Conservation / Feed

Bringing together many of our community's tech types like bioacoustics, biologging, drones, remote sensing, machine learning, and more, the Marine Conservation group is a meeting point to begin innovative collaborations and answer difficult questions.

discussion

How difficult is it to build a buoy and constrain it in place?

Hi everyone.  I'm very interested in marine science and conservation. Is there any information on how to build a buoy? Icing on top would be to constrain it in place...

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Akiba,

You might want to check out these systems, if you haven't seen them already?

http://www.smruconsulting.com/the-coastal-acou-a-new-tool-for-remote-and-real-time-acoustic-monitoring/

https://www.seiche.com/underwater-acoustic-products/platforms/acoustic-monitoring-buoy/

https://www.mseis.com/services/buoys/

https://rtsys.eu/buoys

Thanks, Carlos

I worked with some folks years ago, and I'll dig into my files to see if I had a schematic of some sort. this following video --> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMzk94BQ-sg&ab_channel=RobertBevan is similar to what we would've done, though we did use insulation foam in place of the pool float, upcycled soda bottles and to anchor in place we used a car tire with cement and an I bolt alongside somethign that swivels so that the rope that holds the bouy doesn't snap off. We used it in shallower and calmer areas, though it might've been 10'-15' (3-5m). I'll make a note to look for any files I have of the project, and if you don't hear from me in the new year, could you send me a reminder?
As @Freaklabs would've heard me say a few times, PVC, whilst not environmentally friendly, is quite adaptable and can allow a modular system to be built to suit your needs. 

 

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discussion

Turtle Monitoring DB

Does anyone know of a turtle monitoring DB or perhaps a data model in SMART for turtle monitoring? I have a partner in Africa looking for a solution. Any leads appreciated....

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Hi Ted,

WildTrack is working with the Epicollect5 app that makes it easy to collect turtle images and record a row of data for each one. It's also great for citizen scientists to use. We're using it to monitor Box Turtles and using a morphometric approach to identify individuals. 

Hope this helps,

~Zoe

Hi @[email protected] 
Not sure what kind of data you (or the partner organization) are interested in collectig/logging. 

SWOT just did a short article on the last issue magazine of the apps available for turtle monitoring
https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5b80290bee1759a50e3a86b3/t/5e595027e3b0144b63f281a4/1582911527409/SWOT15_38-39_Smart+Apps.pdf

The just-launched "Sea Turtle Rescue Alliance" has partnered with ProVET to provide a dedicated platform (App and desktop) to record all turtle related data from the arrival at the rescue center to the release, from biometrics to the daily husbandry and medical data. 
The ProVet platform will be distributed globally as part of the Alliance work to enhance marine turtle medicine and will be supported by a dedicated Microsoft Team learning and data-sharing platform for the Alliance members. The first 3 Rescue Centers have just started the trial and data migration phase and will be available to other stranding or rescue centers on tiers (as will need some support ) across 2021-22. Membership to the Alliance will be regulated but should be free, depending on the data volume, size of the centers and the specific features requested from ProVET.
The website should be up and running before Christmas. 
https://www.facebook.com/seaturtlerescuealliance
Happy to provide more info as the platform becomes available.
 

Hi @[email protected] and all,

Please check out https://iot.wildbook.org

Cloud-based data management and computer vision for photo ID using the WIldbook platform. We would love to support additional groups and species.

Thanks,

Jason

 

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discussion

New low cost DIY temperature loggers for reef monitoring

NOAA (including legend Jim Hendee) have developed some new low cost temperature loggers - $9 for parts, pretty good! See the Opuhala project page for more or paper with details on...

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hi Andy,

This looks very interesting!  I've been working with (or at?) temperature loggers for a while, and the interchangeable thermistor idea here is the most promising where accuracy at low cost is concerned.  It's important to note it is the accuracy of the thermistor that is 0.05 degC; the accuracy overall of the logger is going to be less.  I've not been able to find more technical details such as part numbers or schematics, so it's hard to get a handle on that.  Concerning cost,  I do know however that similar thermistors run on the order of $10 in onesies, which makes me think the $9 BOM cost is attainable at qty 1k or 10k.

Thanks,

-harold

Oh, that looks like such an interesting project. I like that the cratering of hardware costs is enabling projects like this to happen. I have some comments on the build which are definitely not a criticism since I love seeing applications of technology that serve an actually useful purpose.

If the goal of the hardware is to measure temperature at a low price point, I would offer some suggestions on possible ways to bring the price down or improve the design while bringing down the cost:

  • Instead of a preform PET tube, it might be an idea to use old PET drink bottles. The preform bottles would either need to be included with the design kit or be found easily by anyone wanting to test out the design. This would mean manufacturing your own tubes and caps which would be a pain. Instead, I would recommend using empty PET drink bottles. These could likely be hardened to be watertight to X meters and would both repurpose the plastic for something useful and remove the need to manufacture custom plastic. PET drink bottles are usually specified to withstand fairly high pressures due to holding carbonated drinks and are definitely waterproof. @htarold  would actually be the expert on the feasibility of this approach. 
  • Re-design the board to integrate everything. [Note: I realize it might be difficult to do these changes, so if you're in contact with the people on this project, I'm okay to advise or contribute time to help implement them] In re-designing the board, you could create a form factor that fits into the above-mentioned PET bottles saving on those as a system cost. It's also possible to custom design the power supply to optimize the power and maintain stability. The board being used is designed to run at 5V, but you can actually run that microcontroller down to1.8V reducing the power by a factor of almost 10 (power consumption is proportional to voltage^2).  It might also be worthwhile to consider using a precision voltage reference rather than the power supply as voltage reference. Even if you have a precision sensor, if your voltage reference isn't at least as precise, that would introduce uncertainty. I believe @htarold was referring to this in the above post. And finally you can integrate the sensor and all associated components onto a single board saving the cost and labor of the prototyping perfboard needed underneath the Nano.
  • From the pictures in the paper, it looks like the sensor is located inside the plastic tube. If that's the case, what it's sensing is the air inside the tube, and the unspoken assumption is that the ocean temperature will reach equilibrium with the tube walls which will reach equilibrium with the air temperature so the sensor will reflect the ocean temperature. I think it's a valid assumption, but air, especially non-moving air, is a poor thermal conductor so it would take a long time to detect changes in ocean temperature. One possible idea would be to use a sensor that is actually directly inserted into the water. This would sample the actual ocean temperature in real time and would respond more quickly to any changes, ie: if the temperature changes at night vs day, etc. Thermistors can actually be purchased encased in stainless steel tubes. Or for a specialty precision thermistor like this, it's also possible to purchase a stainless steel temperature sensor tube housing and manually insert the sensor. An image of an encased thermistor is below.
  • It might be possible to provide the components in kit form and lightly disguised as a soldering learning kit as well. That way, it's possible to have "soldering workshops" where people learn how to solder by assembling these kits. Attendees learn a new skill while protecting the environment, the orgs get temperature dataloggers, save the cost of assembly, and perhaps even make a bit of money for soda and chips if attendees pay to learn how to solder :)

If the Opuhala project wants, we can help procure components wholesale through our purchasers. 
Anyways, it sounds like a great project, if they need any advice or help, we're happy to contribute to improve reef health. 

Akiba, FreakLabs

Hi Akiba,

I made a mistake, I did manage to find some +/-0.05 degC thermistors for USD4 on Digikey, so the USD9 figure can be feasible in low quantitites.  I actually bought a bunch of the thermistors you linked to; the part variation is quite high so calibration is needed to get good results.  I think this is one area where we can truly say Cheap, Accurate, Simple: pick 2.  Edward Mallon whom the authors also cite https://thecavepearlproject.org/ has blogged extensively on this.

Personally I would try to avoid analoque devices because I don't want to deal with having to amplify it, which is where the errors creep in.  Maxim make an ADC that directly compares resistance ratios, and HX711 simplifies bridge measurements.  I'm not sure how this logger does it; the Arduino's ADC isn't very good as you said.  The MAX30205 human body temperature sensor may be worth looking in to for this application.  The measurement range is small but probably adequate for this application, and the accuracy is well documented.

The sensor time constant is a bit high but should be ok for for this low-rate application, and kudos to the authors for characterising it.  There are applications where the time constant needs to be <1s, like for ocean turbulence structure measurement, but that is more physical oceanography and only indirectly wildlife conservation.  The internal sensor simplifies the logger and this is a big advantage in this instance, one I have taken advantage of in the past.

I have considered PET bottles in the past and it is very attractive.  They do very well with internal pressure (7 bar I think!) but with external pressure they are prone to buckling.  One approach may be to re-mould the bottle to be smaller so the walls are thicker.  This should be easy because the bottle shrinks with the application of heat anyway.

I like cheap hardware too!  Plus it goes well with citizen science in a field where investigation is labour intensive and it lends itself well to outreach efforts.

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discussion

Minimising habitat impact of trawling gear

Hi all, There's a lot of innovation out there to minimise species impacts of midwater fishing gear (e.g. turtle excluder devices and other net escape panels, acoustic/...

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K O

There's a wing trawling system that was developed: https://www.facebook.com/wingtrawlingsystem/

I saw the presentation at a recent Ocean Exchange webcast (https://www.oceanexchange.org/webcast-library/2/)

Cheers,

Kortney

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discussion

Free underwater camera units

Hi all!  At Conservation X Labs we are assisting a company called Aquapix in some early product field testing with their underwater camera units for continuous...

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Is this offer still open 

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discussion

Machine learning fish monitoring and the seafood sector

Hi all, Here at FFI, we've had some interest from seafood and aquaculture sector contacts in Google X's recently launched Tidal project and the whole camera-based,...

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Do the people approaching you have defined porblem statements or use cases? That's been one of the biggest challenges in scaling high-tech fisheries monitoring from either the public or private side. Unless there's a mandate to use it (which there is in Australia and the EU) the ROI is usually too low for individuals or companies to invest in it, and the potential markets are too small. Check out this CEA/TNC report for more scoping. http://tnc.org/emreport

Thanks Kate - that's really helpful. The company in question are investors in an emerging high-end aquaculture venture and I assume their interest is around utilising individual fish tracking to drive greater efficiency i.e. to adjust feed inputs, estimate growth rates, detect disease etc. all of which seems to be the intention of the Tidal Project. I'll get back to them with more questions and make some onward connections. If anyone else in the community has any linkages - please drop me a line on here!

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discussion

Small scale fishing vessel tracker tech trials

Hey all, FFI's partners in Costa Rica recently started trialling tracking devices on small-scale artisanal fishers vessels in a newly designated MPA in order to demonstrate...

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Hi Don,

I agree, it's very intriguing.

I think they're using the Remora.  It looks like a solar powered GPS tracker.  I couldn't find much more information.

Thanks,

-harold

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discussion

'Palau vs the Poachers' - can tech help combat illegal fishing in massive MPAs?

The New York Times Magazine posted an interesting piece of investigative journalism today by Ian Urbina, 'Palau vs the Poachers'. In his words 'the island nation has...

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I think this is an interesting idea.  We are working on something that will hopefully eventually be able to be deployed in the Cook Islands and elsewhere: a network of cheap, modular platforms that can acoustically trigulate fishing vessels engaging in unsanctioned trawling.

 

ATLAN Space recently announced a pilot launch that will use autonomous drones and computer vision to report illegal fishing in the Seychelles islands. This article gives a brief overview - more updates to come, hopfeully, after their official launch in October. There's an animation on the homepage of the ATLAN Space website that gives a bit more detail as well. 

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discussion

Big Ocean Button Challenge

Could imagine this might interest some of you: Big Ocean Button Challenge Mobile apps to turn ocean data into the products and services we need. https://herox.com/...

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The top 20 submissions are open for public voting through Oct. 19, so you can go test out what people built.

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discussion

Global Fishing Watch: New Release Online Now

Global Fishing Watch Beta Release 2.0 is Here! Global Fishing Watch has launched a new version of the interactive map that includes new features and...

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Awesome thanks for sharing this Steph!

@djscrazyhorse Thank you for the question. We think a lot about this. Monitoring vessel activity through satellite AIS is already a well-established practice in the shipping, insurance and commodities industries, and AIS data is already publicly available (Marine Traffic, etc.). AIS was designed to be an open, public communications tool. Vessels that use AIS are intentionally making themselves trackable to everyone around them. Global Fishing Watch shows apparent commercial resource extraction that takes place on the open ocean, not on private property. Our fisheries are a common resource, whether on the high seas that belong to everyone or in the sovereign waters of individual nations.

Speaking of data interpretation, creating an IUU risk score was the challenge for this team from the Data Science for Social Good summer fellows program. I saw a presentation on  it and they were linking AIS information to other data, like registries, recent landings, etc. Supposedly, their work will be open source, posted on GitHub, but I haven't seen a link yet. http://35.177.232.166/

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discussion

Turtle Seminar

Hello all!   There is an upcoming seminar on turtles in Yonkers, NY on Saturday, March 25th. If you care about turtles, you should attend. It's $45 for the day, and...

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discussion

Sea turtle identification through pattern matching

This week I have been attending the Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation Conference in Singapore. Although marine conservation is not the main objective of the...

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Hi Nazirul, 

That is so interesting! My assumption was that you would be using the shell markings as the ID, I hadn't even considered that the facial and fin markings would be a more useful way to diferentiate individuals. I would have thought that getting a look at a turtle's shell would be easier than taking a photo that shows the fins or face in enough detail to analyse - is this not the case? Or do you use the facial scale patterns because the shells do not differ enough between individuals?

I'm also keen to hear more now about your methodology. How to you take your observations? If you're using pattern recognition software and Wildbook, you must be taking photos. Are these remotely triggered (i.e. underwater camera traps), or are they from photos taken by divers or people there monitoring in person? 

Kate's link above doesn't seem to be working for me, is there a website we can visit to find out more? 

Thanks in advance!

Cheers,

Steph

Hi Jason, 
I've had Ibeis and Wildbook on my radar for ages and have been meaning to ask you about the two projects, so this is a neat opportunity! Could you tell us a bit more about the two projects? I have been trying to figure out how they are integrated (and also seperate - it's a bit confusing from the outside!), so I'm interested to find out more about where you hoping to take the project(s).   

Is the platform open to anyone interested in analysing images for patterns? How does it work? 

Cheers,

Steph 

Hi Steph,

Sorry for the late reply as I have other commitments currently. 

In our case, we are using facial scales pattern because we found out that each individual have a distinctive scutes pattern (number, position & shape) on their face. Fins pattern are usable as well for identification but due to its complexity, the chances for errors (misidentification) are greater. This however can be solved when we have a more species specific pattern recognition software which can pin-point the exact distinctive features on the fins pattern.  

Based on our findings in 2015, we found that facial and fins patterns are more reliable than the shell markings as it provided more details in identifying individuals. There are some individuals with very distinctive shell markings but unfortunetly, it does not apply to the whole population especially the juveniles. Most juveniles have almost similar shell markings. 

In Perhentian Islands, observation of sea turtles while snorkeling or diving has become an opportunity for us to conduct the study. We have a team of trained research intern who went out for snorkel survey looking out for turtles every day throughout the season. Whenever a turtle is sighted, one of the research intern will skin-dive and photograph the top view of the turtle and both sides of the face. All the photos are then brought back to the research station and analyse using the pattern recognition software. The reason why we took the top view photo is because it is easier for us to know the sex of the individual when we analysed the photos.

Sorry to tell you that our website is currently not available. We have been trying to bring it back but there is a constant virus & spyware attack. We are now reachable only by Facebook page:  https://www.facebook.com/perhentianturtleproject/?fref=ts

 

Regards,

Nazirul 

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discussion

Blue Economy Challenge / Sustainable aquaculture for Indian Ocean developing countries

How can technology and innovations help us ensure food security through aquaculture in developing countries while conserving oceans? The Blue Economy Challenge https://www....

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I'll be entering the Blue Economy Challege. Would be really cool to start a conversation and collaboration between community members here and others who join the challenge. What if entrants to the BEC got a link to WildLabs and invited to join this conversation after they submitted their application?

Jamieson, this is a great idea, and although my reply is rather delayed, it is not too late for me to update the message for Blue Economy Challenge applicants! I encourage applicants to the BEC to use this space to continue the conversation about technological innovations that will transform aquaculture. 

RT

Algae technology is central to innovation to conserve biodiversity against the threats of climate change.  I am part of a global scientific group called Ocean Foresters.  Our proposed Haven Atoll system aims to use algae to help save coral biodiversity and reduce ocean acidity. We are seeking partners for the Blue Economy Aquaculture Challenge.

In the northern section of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, 95% of the coral is damaged or dead from excessive ocean heat. Coral bleaching is not limited to Australia, but is occurring in every ocean around the world. CO2 emissions are the cause of the crisis, but the real problem now is that emission reductions alone are just too slow to prevent catastrophic biodiversity loss. Immediate steps are needed to reduce the heat, acidity and nutrients that are killing our reefs. Algae is the key to save reefs by providing cooler and cleaner water in atolls. As Dr Tim Flannery argues in his 2015 book Atmosphere of Hope, the Ocean Foresters have presented compelling argument that large scale deployment of artificial forests of seaweeds, kelps and algae is the most promising response to fixing ocean health and removing CO2. 

Ocean Foresters’ key proposal is called Haven Atolls, a system for protecting coral by growing large amounts of marine plants for fuel, food, fertilizer, fabric and fodder. Australia has the need, expertise, resources, locations and innovative culture to lead the world on Haven Atolls, targeted to the coral systems under most threat from global warming. Haven Atolls will produce fresh water, energy and algae products and protect local corals.  Our key innovation is to bring cool nutrient-rich deep ocean water to the surface and feed it into coral atolls for sustainable aquaculture and to cool the coral during heat waves, protecting against global warming. The Haven Atoll will serve as a reservoir of biodiversity to seed reefs destroyed by bleaching. Haven Atolls will serve the global agendas of supporting food security and biodiversity, and will be critical to helping achieve negative carbon emissions, as identified by world governments in the Paris Climate Agreement as necessary to keep warming below two degrees.

Time is the enemy of coral. Our magnificent reefs are dying. Many have gone extinct or will soon. Algae systems can save the reefs while developing technology for sustainable energy and food supply and beginning to remove the dangerous extra carbon that fossil fuels have added to our air and sea. We urgently need partnerships for innovation, to implement rapid practical cost-effective methods to save our precious coral reefs from the looming extinction.

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discussion

How can technology help reduce manatee boat strikes?

I was just reading a story that was talking about how manatees are prone to boat strikes. I was wondering if there are any technologies currently available or in development that...

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Using SMART to record and map where the boat strikes (and/or sightings of injured manatees) are happening could be a good way to at least get a better idea of the problem, where it is happening and times of year etc.

Hi John,

Have you checked out Whale Alert? There may be some scope for applying/adapting the same technology for averting manatee strikes by applying it to the recreational boating sector.

Best regards,

Gavin

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