Advancing survey techniques for fisheries resources in Icelandic waters using Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) / Þróun aðferða við mat á stofnstærð botndýra með hjálp sjálfvirks kafbáts (AUV)
Verkefni lokið - fréttatilkynning verkefnisstjóra
Firstly, this was achieved through establishing the use of a Gavia AUV for estimating population abundance & size distributions of Iceland scallops. The AUV was used to conduct 5 repeated small-scale surveys off Stykkishólmur, West Iceland in November 2011. The scallops were enumerated visually from the photos of the seafloor and the count data were used to estimate mean scallop population abundance with confidence limits.
Heiti verkefnis: Advancing survey techniques for fisheries resources in Icelandic waters using Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) / Þróun aðferða við mat á stofnstærð botndýra með hjálp sjálfvirks kafbáts (AUV)
Verkefnisstjóri: Jörundur Svavarsson, Líffræðistofnun Háskólans
Tegund styrks: Verkefnisstyrkur
Styrkár: 2011-2013
Fjárhæð styrks: 19,960 millj. kr. alls
Tilvísunarnúmer Rannís: 11020902
A repeated survey approach can be used to generate variance estimates of population parameters to verify their statistical precision. Such repeated surveys are not quite feasible with classical techniques such as dredge surveys and towed systems such as remotely operated vehicles, thus illustrating a clear advantage of the AUV survey technique. Further, an approach was developed to estimate the size of scallop shells from the AUV images. A comparison of scallop size estimates obtained from the AUV survey and nearby dredge surveys showed that the AUV finds scallops of a much wider size range. Algorithms were also developed to detect the scallop shells from the AUV images in an automated manner. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time an AUV has been successfully used to conduct fisheries surveys in Icelandic waters. With the techniques now established, stock assessment of other bottom-dwelling marine organisms, such as mussels and flatfish, can form part of future projects. Secondly, the Gavia AUV was enhanced through the development of a new camera module that adheres to the Gavia architecture and houses a Canon 5D Mark III camera. The resolution of the photographs would increase from 0.5 to 21.1 megapixels. Initial test runs with the new camera module have been successfully completed. A better camera and navigation system on the vehicle should considerably improve the performance of the AUV and create opportunities for more extensive surveys. Thirdly, it was investigated how survey designs for length based assessments can be made more efficient. In this case an approach was developed to optimize sampling strategies to detect modes in lengthfrequency distribution with some certainty. The techniques developed are generic and could be applied to optimize AUV surveys that focus on length assessments.
List of Published Material:
- Singh, W., Örnólfsdóttir, E., and Stefansson, G. 2013. A camera based autonomous underwater vehicle sampling approach to assess scallop population. Journal of Shellfish Research 32(3): 725-732.
- Singh, W., Örnólfsdóttir, E., and Stefansson, G. 2012. A small-scale comparison of Iceland scallop size distributions obtained from a camera based autonomous underwater vehicle and dredge survey. Accepted. Plos One.
- Guðmundsson, E.O. 2012. Detecting scallops in images from an AUV. Master's thesis. University of Iceland. http://skemman.is/handle/1946/13272
- Jónsson, I.M. 2013. Camera module for the Gavia AUV. Bachelor's thesis. Reykjavik University. http://skemman.is/stream/get/1946/17208/38831/1/Lokav._Ingi_Mar_J %C3%B3nsson.pdf
- Singh, W., Thordarson, G., Haputhantari, S., and Stefansson, G. 2013. Optimized sampling strategies for identifying modes in length-frequency distributions. Communications in Statisti
