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The Future of Fishing Is Big Data and Artificial Intelligence (civileats.com)
An anonymous reader shares a report: New England's groundfish season is in full swing, as hundreds of dayboat fishermen from Rhode Island to Maine take to the water in search of the region's iconic cod and haddock. But this year, several dozen of them are hauling in their catch under the watchful eye of video cameras as part of a new effort to use technology to better sustain the area's fisheries and the communities that depend on them. Video observation on fishing boats -- electronic monitoring -- is picking up steam in the Northeast and nationally as a cost-effective means to ensure that fishing vessels aren't catching more fish than allowed while informing local fisheries management. While several issues remain to be solved before the technology can be widely deployed -- such as the costs of reviewing and storing data -- electronic monitoring is beginning to deliver on its potential to lower fishermen's costs, provide scientists with better data, restore trust where it's broken, and ultimately help consumers gain a greater understanding of where their seafood is coming from.
[...] Human observers are widely used to monitor catch in quota-managed fisheries, and they're expensive: It costs roughly $700 a day for an observer in New England. The biggest cost of electronic monitoring is the labor required to review the video. Perhaps the most effective way to cut costs is to use computers to review the footage. Christopher McGuire, marine program director for TNC in Massachusetts, says there's been a lot of talk about automating the review, but the common refrain is that it's still five years off. To spur faster action, TNC last year spearheaded an online competition, offering a $50,000 prize to computer scientists who could crack the code -- that is, teach a computer how to count fish, size them, and identify their species. The contest exceeded McGuire's expectations. "Winners got close to 100 percent in count and 75 percent accurate on identifying species," he says.
[...] Human observers are widely used to monitor catch in quota-managed fisheries, and they're expensive: It costs roughly $700 a day for an observer in New England. The biggest cost of electronic monitoring is the labor required to review the video. Perhaps the most effective way to cut costs is to use computers to review the footage. Christopher McGuire, marine program director for TNC in Massachusetts, says there's been a lot of talk about automating the review, but the common refrain is that it's still five years off. To spur faster action, TNC last year spearheaded an online competition, offering a $50,000 prize to computer scientists who could crack the code -- that is, teach a computer how to count fish, size them, and identify their species. The contest exceeded McGuire's expectations. "Winners got close to 100 percent in count and 75 percent accurate on identifying species," he says.
Because we're devastating the oceans in every way we know how. CO2 acidification, plastic pollution, chemical pollution, radioactive pollution, oil spills, dispersants sprayed on oil spills...
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Sounds like you do more fishing than catching.
And the quality of a lot of other food is lower than it used to be.
Lower levels of nutrients and more sugar. Mass market tomatoes are obscenely sweet these days but at least they are not woody any more like they were in the late 90s. Tomatoes are not naturally sweet. They taste like tomatoes. Nothing else tastes like them. Tomatoes should not taste like grapes. I had some recently on a salad bar that literally tasted like grapes. Not a hint of tomato flavor. Just sugar.
But, anyway. Our population has exceeded maltusian limits with regard to fish. So the price of fish is going up and some areas of the sea are dead with regard to fishing. If left alone they would rise to higher levels and we could have higher sustainable levels but that isn't happening and probably won't happen.
The serious shit starts in 30 years or so with chromium (i.e. stainless steel), magnesium, manganese, and so on. We used more chromium in 2014 than from 1901 to 2000 combined.
She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.