Final Report WP2A: Development and Pilot Deployment of a Prototypic
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Work Package (2) Final Report WP2A: Development and Pilot Deployment of a Prototypic Autonomous Fisheries Data Harvesting System, and WP2B: Investigation into the Availability and Adaptability of Novel Technological Approaches to Data Collection. Project codes: WP00(2A)SIFIDS and WP00(2B)SIFIDS This project was supported by EMFF: SCO1434 a grant from the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund 1 Published by Marine Alliance for Science and Technology for Scotland (MASTS) This report/document is available on The MASTS website at http://www.masts.ac.uk/research/emff- sifids-project/ and via the British Lending Library. Following the successful completion of the EMFF funded project Dissemination Statement ‘Scottish Inshore Fisheries Integrated Data System (SIFIDS)’ the University of St Andrews and Marine Scotland have consented to the free distribution/dissemination of the projects individual work package reports, in electronic format, via MASTS and the British Library. This report reflects only the view(s) of the author(s) and the Disclaimer University of St Andrews, MASTS, Marine Scotland, the Scottish Government and the Commission are not responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains. University of St Andrews (UoSA) This report was prepared for Contact Dr. Mark James Telephone +44 (0) 1334 467 312 Email [email protected] The report was completed by SeaScope Fisheries Research Limited Contact Grant Course Telephone +44 (0) 1461 700309 Email [email protected] Recommended citation style Ayers R., Course G.P. and Pasco G.R. (2019). Scottish Inshore Fisheries Integrated Data System (SIFIDS): Development of an Autonomous Fisheries Data Harvesting System and Investigations into Novel Technological Approaches to Fisheries Data Collection. Published by MASTS. 174pp. This project was supported by EMFF: SCO1434 a grant from the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund 2 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY To enhance sustainability and foster resilience within Scotland’s inshore fishing communities an effective system of collecting and sharing relevant data is required. To support business decisions made by vessel owners as well as informing fisheries managers and those involved in marine planning it will be vital to collect a range of information which will provide a robust understanding of fishing activity, the economic value of the sector and its importance within local communities. The SIFIDS Project was conceived to assist in attaining these goals by working alongside fishers to develop and test technology to automatically collect and collate data on board vessels, thereby reducing the reporting burden on fishers. The project built upon previous research funded through the European Fisheries Fund (EFF) and was designed to deliver a step change in the way that inshore fisheries in Scotland could be managed in cooperation with the industry. The project focussed on inshore fishing vessels around Scotland, where spatio-temporal information on the distribution of vessels and associated fishing effort is data deficient. The whole project was broken down into 12 highly integrated work packages. This is the integrated report for work packages 2A and 2B, entitled’ Development and Pilot Deployment of a Prototypic Autonomous Fisheries Data Harvesting System’ (2A) and ‘Investigation into the Availability and Adaptability of Novel Technological Approaches to Data Collection’ (2B). Work package objective: The development and optimisation of a systematic approach to the acquisition, harvesting and collation of fisheries data leading to the production of a cost- effective On Board Central Data Collation System (OBCDCS) designed to harvest, store and forward a wide range of data streams from vessels operating in the Scottish inshore fisheries fleet. The work packages can be broken down into 3 functional elements, the first addresses WP2A, the remaining two address WP2B. WP2B was broken into 2 elements based on the data streams required (effort and detailed catch), the complexity of the problem, the type and costs of the technology required and the likelihood of the successful development of a scalable solution: 1. Investigate and develop a system to acquire, store and forward ashore vessel positional data, provide a flexible method for acquiring additional sensor data, link this data to the positional records and include it in the forwarding process. 2. Investigate and develop a system for acquiring fishing activity and effort data that will integrate with element 1. 3. Investigate and develop a system to identify to species, allocate to sex and provide the standard measurement, or a suitable proxy, for Brown Crab and Lobster catches and integrate with element 1. Element 1 – Positional data The project designed, built and deployed 13 systems suited to the small vessels in the fleet; taking little power or space, being able to withstand the harsh environment and being simple to install. The systems are wholly constructed in a modular fashion using off-the-shelf components providing ease of maintenance should it be necessary. The system provides a standard data package interface for the acquisition of sensor data and transmits both the positional and sensor data ashore utilising cellular (3G/4G) data. Providing the vessel has a mobile signal, the system uploads the positional and sensor in near real-time (every 5 minutes). The system was configured in such a way that remote updates to the systems were possible via the cellular (3G/4G) networks used. 3 The systems were in the field for up to 1 year and the systems as a whole logged over 35 million individual positional pings. The hardware and software elements of the system are detailed along with the challenges encountered during the design and operational phases. Element 2 – Activity and effort data A wide variety of sensors and methods for acquiring the necessary data streams were investigated and are presented in this report. A system utilising Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags and inductive sensing was developed and deployed on 5 vessels to record the hauling and shooting events for individual strings and to count creels as they were hauled aboard. The system is described in detail with background information on the operation of both RFID and inductive technology and why it is particularly suited to this application. Element 3 – Catch data The potential routes to acquiring the required data cover a range of technologies ranging from visual spectrum imagery, through near infrared spectroscopy, to cutting edge 3D laser scanning. The report explores the different technologies, assessing their suitability and how they may be applied to the project. A system was developed using 3D laser technology to provide high resolution scans from which species, sex and measurements can be obtained. The resulting scans are presented along with discussion of the challenges encountered in achieving the aims of the element The report concludes with a discussion on the performance of each of the systems developed, how they may be further developed and employed in a larger scale roll-out with a suggestion for a tiered approach to data collection across a fleet of vessels and a brief set of recommendations. 4 CONTENTS Acknowledgements .............................................................................................................. 12 1 Introduction .............................................................................................................. 13 1.1 The SIFIDS project ....................................................................................... 13 1.2 WP2a: “Development and Pilot Deployment of a Prototypic Autonomous Fisheries Data Harvesting System” .................................................................................. 13 1.3 WP2b: “Investigation into the Availability and Adaptability of Novel Technological Approaches to Data Collection” ................................................................. 15 1.4 Aims of Work Package 2 ............................................................................... 15 2 Methodology ............................................................................................................. 16 2.1 The Fishery and Data Requirements ............................................................. 16 2.1.1 Overview of a Creel Fishery Operation ......................................................... 16 2.1.2 Data Requirements ....................................................................................... 17 2.1.3 Opportunities for Data Collection .................................................................. 21 2.2 WP2a ............................................................................................................ 23 2.2.1 System Requirements ................................................................................... 23 2.2.2 System design – Concepts ........................................................................... 23 2.2.3 Option 1 – Central processor ........................................................................ 24 2.2.4 Option 2 – Central server .............................................................................. 25 2.2.5 Pathway selection ......................................................................................... 25 2.2.6 Hardware selection ....................................................................................... 26 2.2.7 The physical equipment ...............................................................................