RS Aqua Score Funding for AI Marine Mammal Protection Plan

RS Aqua won funding to develop a new system to monitor the underwater environment. Collaborating with the University of Southampton and funded by Innovate UK, the MARLIN project will develop an underwater sensor that uses machine learning to identify harmful environmental activities and transmits information in real time to a web app. 

This is designed to allow stakeholders to remotely monitor the underwater environment and make decisions in real time. MARLIN will develop several new technologies: new machine learning techniques to distinguish between ambient and unusual environmental noise (such as marine mammals), new real-time data connections suitable for the remote ocean, and a new user-friendly interface.

“This technology will revolutionize how we scientifically monitor our ocean environment," said Dr. Ryan Mowat, Research Director at RS Aqua. "Currently we have to leave instruments underwater for months at a time and recover them before accessing their data. MARLIN will get that data to the internet in real time, and its implications are huge. It will help ensure that offshore construction is sensitive to marine mammal activity and will enable the monitoring of marine protected areas through the real time recognition of illegal fishing activity.”

Professor of Statistical Signal Processing Paul White, from the University of Southampton, said: "Using the power of artificial intelligence to monitor sound in the underwater world, combined with the ability to rapidly relay information ashore, will enable us to provide tools to protect
fragile marine ecosystems and detect a range of illegal activities."