BARNSTABLE – The Cape Cod Fishermen’s Alliance is among 15 Regional Innovation Engine finalists for funding with the National Science Foundation to pilot a robot-based data collection program.
The program is part of the New England Seafood Partnership for Innovations, Research and Engagement (NSPIRE) engine aiming to strategically improve the fishing industry.
CEO Melissa Sanderson says they hope to build a dynamic map of fishing locations, factoring things like water temperatures and salinity.
“NSPIRE is an amazing opportunity for New England’s fishing industry to up their game – reducing expenses to catch and process fish, bolstering the seafood workforce, providing tools to adapt to the rapidly changing ocean, and allowing us to better compete with foreign imports,” said Sanderson, chief operating officer at Fishermen’s Alliance.
“The project we are leading would pilot the use of small autonomous underwater robots on fishing vessels to collect oceanographic data. Fishermen will deploy robots at sea, and the robots will drive around collecting data and come back to the boat with information the captain can use to decide where to set their fishing gear to maximize catch and minimize fuel use. We want to collect enough environmental and catch data to build predictive models to help the industry efficiently find their target species despite fluctuating ocean conditions.”
More on the NSPIRE program can be found on the official website here.
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