Q&A |
AI advances fish monitoring
Innovasea is leading the Species Aware project to integrate automated fish species identification into hydropower monitoring. Building on its existing HydroAI platform, the initiative uses AI trained on real-world hydropower data to improve accuracy, support regulatory confidence and strengthen environmental monitoring at operational dams.
Above: HydroAI eel ladder
INNOVASEA IS LEADING A NEW initiative designed to advance how fish passage monitoring is carried out at hydropower facilities. The $4.8 million Species Aware project will enable hydropower operators to automatically identify fish species using artificial intelligence, expanding the role of automated monitoring in regulatory compliance, environmental management and operational oversight. Species Aware is one of six projects funded in part by Canada’s Ocean Supercluster (OSC) and is supported through Canada’s Pan-Canadian AI Strategy. More than $2 million of the total funding is being contributed by the OSC, with the remaining investment coming from Innovasea and its project partners. As part of the initiative, Innovasea will work with Canadian-based power companies to test and refine automated species identification models at selected hydropower sites. Innovasea is a global leader in aquaculture and fish tracking technology and solutions, with an established presence in the hydropower sector. The Species Aware project builds directly on the company’s existing HydroAI system, an AI-powered monitoring solution that provides continuous, real-time fish counts at hydropower facilities. The new project extends that capability by adding automated species classification, allowing operators to determine not only how many fish are passing through a site, but also which species are present. According to Innovasea chief executive Mark Jollymore, the project represents a significant evolution in fish passage monitoring. “Through the Species Aware Project, we’re delivering the next wave of AI innovation for fish passage
12 | January 2026 |
www.waterpowermagazine.com
monitoring,” Jollymore said. “By automating species identification, we’re helping hydropower sites further streamline compliance, reduce downtime, and collect vital data to protect and support their surrounding ecosystem.”
Longstanding challenges in fish
passage monitoring Fish passage monitoring has been a requirement at many hydropower facilities for decades, particularly where operations interact with migratory fish or species subject to regulatory protection. Despite its importance, the methods traditionally used to monitor fish movement have changed relatively little over time. According to Jean Quirion, Innovasea’s vice president
of research and development for fish tracking, historical approaches have relied heavily on manual processes. “For many, many years, the methods that have been used in monitoring fish and passageways have been very manual in nature,” Quirion said. “We see humans manually counting fish or making judgements about species from video recordings.” These approaches are inherently constrained by human availability and endurance. Observers cannot monitor continuously, nor can they cover multiple locations simultaneously. As a result, most monitoring programmes are based on limited sampling windows. Because fish passage occurs continuously, data
collected during short observation periods must be interpolated between observation samples to estimate total passage. This interpolation introduces uncertainty and contributes to wide margins of error.
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