| New innovations
the data showed that the alewife prefer being on the move during the daytime. “The data resolution we got was amazing,” explained Jean Quirion, Innovasea’s vice president of research and development for fish tracking. “Before this people were manually counting fish from recorded video, and there’s no way they could produce this same level of data because they don’t have time to watch video 24/7 and notice every fish.” The final results from the AI system were validated against the results from manual counting. During 178 random samplings, Innovasea personnel counted 2,564 fish from recorded video while the tagless detection system counted 2,681, a difference of less than 5 percent. “We’ve had phenomenal results,” said Quirion. “Nobody has ever recorded this kind of data before. With the traditional approach of manually counting from a video, there is a fatigue aspect to it, there’s human error etc. With this new AI system, a machine does it automatically 24/7. There’s no limit to how many cameras it can watch – this is something that was never before possible. What’s exciting is to see the amount and quality of data that’s delivered, all in real time.” These kinds of insights, coming in real time straight to the end user on a mobile phone or a web app, hold the potential to make hydropower facilities more precise in how they operate – halting power generation when fish are nearby but minimizing downtime when the fish aren’t active. Rather than shut down for days or weeks, for example, operators could run overnight and stop at dawn when fish are on the move again. Quirion explained: “At White Rock last year, we had one camera looking at fish coming up the fish ladder. The whole migration count is about 900,000 fish. And we know that we’ve validated the system to have a 95% accuracy. In addition to that, the data that the system provided had minute level resolution. Every minute we get a new count of how many fish pass by and we could clearly see movement. We were seeing patterns throughout the day. Previously it would not have been possible to differentiate between these patterns with that level of resolution.
“In the future, decision making for power generation may be enabled by this technology,” suggested Quirion. “The patterns we are seeing are daily, but also offers the opportunity to see seasonal patterns. The system currently provides minute level resolution, and we’re working on reducing that to even to less than minute resolution. What kind of operational decision might be enabled by a capability like that?”
Additional trials and investigations While the results from White Rock have been
promising, Innovasea is looking to perform additional field trials of the system with other utilities or dam operators, including in countries outside of North America. “The more sites we have access to the more versatile
this technology is going to become,” said Quirion. “It would also be interesting to look at sites in different countries. There might be different problems in Europe, for example, than North America. The more variety we have, the better.” Of particular interest in the next round of trials f
Above: The Innovasea system in operation
Ocean Aware project
Canada’s Ocean Supercluster announced its Ocean Aware project back in 2020. The Innovasea-led project is a $29 million program to develop new technologies to help maritime industries improve operations while lessening their impacts on the environment. Ocean Aware will deliver benefits in four key areas:
• Aquaculture – Technological advances and new tools will give fish farmers enhanced ability to monitor environmental conditions and protect fish from harmful underwater events. • The Fishing Industry – New technology to observe, monitor and locate fish stocks will help increase fishing efficiency, improve the sustainability of our fisheries and minimize bycatch. • The Energy Sector – New tools to better monitor and understand the behavior of the marine life that tends to congregate around fixed infrastructure in the ocean, such as offshore wind turbines and oil and gas platforms. • Ocean Discovery/Research – New sources data for scientists and researchers so they can conduct ocean ecosystem research and
gain a deeper understanding of marine life movement and activity. While a Canadian initiative, Ocean Aware will create a blueprint – and the tools and technologies – that other nations can use to ensure that important maritime industries operate in a way that is both sustainable and profitable. Working with Innovasea is an impressive team of partners, supporters and stakeholders who each bring a wealth of expertise and insight to the table. They include Emera, Nova Scotia Power, Ocean Choice International, Irving Shipbuilding, Dartmouth Ocean Technologies, Xeos Technologies, and with the support of the Ocean Tracking Network, Dalhousie University, Fisheries Marine Institute of Memorial University, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, and others. In addition to leading this impressive collection of experts,
Innovasea’s role will also be to build upon the advanced fish tracking and aquaculture intelligence solutions already developed and adapt them as needed based on the requirements of the project.
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