AUTOMATED AIRBORNE TUNA SCHOOL DETECTOR

THERE IS A NEED TO REDUCE DOLPHIN BYCATCH IN THE TUNA PURSE SEINE FISHERY IN THE ETP AND IMPROVE THE SEARCHING EFFICIENCY FOR TUNAS NOT ASSOCIATED WITH DOLPHINS. ARETE PROPOSES TO DESIGN IN PHASE 1 A PROTOTYPE AIRBORNE PASSIVE DAYTIME MULTISPECTRAL IMAGING SYSTEM FOR IMPROVING THE SEARCHING EFFICIENCY FOR TUNAS NOT ASSOCIATED WITH DOLPHINS. THIS EFFORT INCLUDES AIRBORNE COLLECTION OF OCEAN VIDEO DATA, DIGITIZATION ON A MAC, AND NON-REAL TIME PROCESSING FOR PRELIMINARY ALGORITHM AND CAMERA EVALUATION. IN PHASE 2 ARETE WOULD BUILD AND FIELD TEST THE REAL-TIME PROTOTYPE SYSTEM. THE SYSTEM WOULD BE ASSEMBLED USING COMMERCIALLY AVAILABLE COMPONENTS. PHASE 3 WOULD LEAD TO COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS. THE SYSTEM AUTOMATICALLY DETECTS DENSE TUNA SCHOOLS TO DEPTHS OF ABOUT 100 FEET IN THE ETP AND DISPLAYS MULTISPECTRALLY PROCESSED IMAGES. THE SYSTEM WOULD SOUND AND/OR FLASH AN ALARM TO ALERT THE OPERATOR OF AN AUTOMATIC DETECTION, WHO WOULD THEN ASSESS THE VALIDITY OF THE AUTOMATIC DETECTION BY ZOOMING THE IMAGE AND'OR USING A ARIETY OF UNIQUE DISPLAY OPTIONS TO REJECT CLUTTER OR FALSE ALARMS. THE PROPOSED SYSTEMS CAN BE USED ON EXISTING HELICOPTERS FOLLOWING CURRENT PROCEDURES ALREADY IN USE BY FISHERIES. THUS, IT CAN EASILY BE TRANSITIONED TO DEDICATED SEARCH METHODS.