The Department of Primary Industry and Resources (DPIR) has partnered with Microsoft in an award winning project recording, identifying and classifying fish on remote underwater videos using Artificial Intelligence.

The Microsoft AI solution helps monitor and manage marine health by rapidly analysing underwater video captured in Darwin Harbour.

The platform automates the lengthy process of counting local fish stocks by progressively learning to identify different varieties of fish species using techniques similar to those used for facial recognition in social media.

DPIR currently uses Baited Remote Underwater Video Stations (BRUVS) to monitor fish species, however, there are difficulties in using BRUVS in Darwin, where the tidal range is around eight metres.

DIPR fisheries scientist, Dr Shane Penny, said the new AI platform was a great benefit to his team as technical staff who would manually analysing BRUVS footage are now redirected to other jobs, such as deploying and retrieving BRUVS more frequently at more sites.

“This greater coverage then leads to more scientifically robust advice to fishery managers and the system is able to  identify a fish in a video with 95 to 99 per cent accuracy.

“Two particular species that have been of great interest to our team are golden snapper and black jewfish as research has shown they had been overfished around the greater Darwin area,” he said.  

Part of the management plan for those species was to put in place a number of protection zones, with underwater video installed to monitor numbers in the area.

Microsoft Australia’s National Technology Officer Lee Hickin said Cloud computing and AI were combining to support scientists to gain a deeper understanding of fish populations.

“Scientists can now take the insights from the AI solution and focus on making informed decisions that have significant environmental and economic impacts,” he said.

Displaying true innovation and collaboration, the partnership between DPIR Technology staff, DPIR Fisheries Researchers and Microsoft has resulted in a world leading Artificial Intelligence project putting Darwin firmly on the innovation map.

The Artificial Intelligence technique is known as Computer Vision and is described as the ability of a machine to recognise an object or shape from video or an image. It is a hugely complex undertaking and at the very forefront of Artificial Intelligence work around the world.

Media contact: Lucy Buhr 0419 106 309