News

In CRIMAC, we work on improving the ability to distinguish between different fish species using broadband echo sounders. But how is the broadband response (the echo) of herring affected when it reacts to a research vessel? And does this behavior have consequences for how we train and use models to recognize herring? This is what we investigated in a new article published in the ICES Journal of Marine Science.

CRIMAC annual report 2023 is now published. Read it here.

The meeting was organized by the ICES Working Group on fisheries acoustics, science and technology. The meeting was hosted by IRD and IFREMER in Brest. The WGFAST community is an excellent venue for presenting and discussing topics related to fisheries acoustics.

The 94th Annual Meeting of the International Association of Applied Mathematics and Mechanics (GAMM) was hosted by Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg. From March 18 to March 22, 2024, mathematicians, engineers, and scientists from around the world gathered at the university's main campus.

We published our new paper discussing a method to improve the performance of deep convolutional neural networks for acoustic target classification. Our paper addresses the challenge of class imbalance in the sampling of training and validation data, leading to more accurate target classification.

This cruise report describes the objectives, methods, and preliminary results from the tasks carried out at the CRIMAC SFI survey. The survey was conducted on board RV G.O. Sars between November 15th (Tromsø) and November 21st (Tromsø); in the fjords around Tromsø, from Malangen to Kvænangen.

Norway’s fjords are ideal for studying the ocean. They’re calm, deep, have consistent populations of interesting marine creatures, and there’s still a lot to learn about them. Every year, Professor Anne Gro Vea Salvanes from @UniBergen takes students on field trips to Masfjorden to teach them the field skills they need to be good marine scientists. 

How do scientific broadband echosounders work, and specifically how is the acoustic echo from a target processed to provide correct and meaningful biological and ecological insight? This is detailed in a new paper published by CRIMAC research and industry partners in “Methods in Ecology and Evolution“.

Muriel Dunn successfully defended her PhD thesis “Advancing broadband hydroacoustic methods for ecological surveys with uncrewed vehicles in the Arctic” at Memorial University December 2023. Dr. Dunn was a PhD student at Memorial University, supervised by Dr. Maxime Geoffrey, and co-supervised by CRIMAC researcher Geir Pedersen.

We published a comprehensive review of 1000 Publications showcasing ML applications in the field. CRIMAC contributed with the review of active acoustics.

New article: How to obtain clear images from in-trawl cameras near the seabed? A case study from the Barents Sea demersal fishing grounds 

I am delighted to share my experience attending the Foundations of Computational Mathematics (FoCM) conference held in Paris, France. As the 9th edition of the conference, it follows a series of successful meetings that began with the idea of FoCM in Park City back in 1995. Subsequent conferences took place in Rio de Janeiro (1997), Oxford (1999), Minneapolis (2002), Santander (2005), Hong Kong (2008), Budapest (2011), Montevideo (2014), and Barcelona (2017).

CRIMAC has available two PhD fellowships in marine acoustics, located at Department of Physics and Technology, University of Bergen (UiB), Bergen, Norway. Both PhD fellows will collaborate closely with the Ecosystem Acoustics group at Institute of Marine Research (IMR). This is a great opportunity to work in a world-leading scientific group, with a collegial and professionally stimulating working environment.

Both positions have now been filled, with start-up in September 2023.

This year the symposium adressed the team: "From Echosounders to the Cloud: Transforming Acoustic Data to Information.”

The cruise report from the joint survey for CRIMAC and LoVe observatory on "G.O. Sars" November 2022 is now published.

CRIMAC had four contributions for the 45th Scandinavian Symposium on Physical Acoustics. 

Here we further develop our model of semisuperserved learning to work on pixel-based segmentation. This work is done in collaboration with the Visual Intelligence SFI. You can read more about it here

The Geilo Winter School is an annual event that provides researchers with a unique opportunity to learn from lectures, collaborate and exchange ideas and experiences. This year, the 23rd edition of the Geilo Winter School was held from January 22 - January 27, 2023, on the topic of Computational Statistics.

Direct measurement of fish size is useful in fish farming, fisheries and marine research, and we have tested how broadband echosounders can be used for this purpose.

PhD student Taraneh Westergerling reports from her presentation at the the ICES/PICES early career scientist conference.

2021 was the first full year for SFI CRIMAC. Despite the pandemic, the center has been able to progress well. The annual report for 2021 is now published and can be accessed here (pdf).

Different data-preparation strategies suitable for acoustic target classification using a deep learning is tested. You will find more information here:

CRIMAC had five contributions to the ICES Working Group on Fisheries Acoustics Science and Technology (WGFAST)

The cruise report from the joint survey for CRIMAC and the IMR sampling gear project on G.O. Sars November 2021 is now published.

CRIMAC had three contribtions for “The 45th Scandinavian Symposium on Physical Acoustics.”

The target strength is required to estimate the abundance of mesopelagic fish. In this paper flesh shear viscosity is estimated, which is a key parameter for target strength, from in-situ broadband backscattering measurement.

This essay outlines how we use machine learning in marine science in Norway. CRIMAC is collaborating with Visual Intelligence SFI where the Norwegian Computing centre and the University of Tromsø are partners on using machine learning on the vast amounts of data from modern echo sounders.

Norway has a long-standing collaboration between science, technology and fishing industry within “smart fisheries”. CRIMAC builds on this collaboration. Click to read our contribution in this special issue of Journal of Technology.

Deep neural networks require a substantial amount of data for training. We have developed a new method for training deep networks for acoustic target classification with only 10 % of the training data compared to traditional methods. The work is a collaboration between the COGMAR project and the Visual Intelligence SFI.

Marine researcher Nils Olav Handegard takes the helm after Egil Ona.

In this newsletter, project manager Nils Olav Handegard gives an overview of recent CRIMAC activities.

Norway's Institute of Marine Research to use robot platforms and enhanced digital infrastructure to harvest data from the seas.

This is good news for both fishers and fish stocks.

The CRIMAC centre wants the echo sounder itself to be able to distinguish between herring, mackerel, shrimps and gas emissions. Now scientists have completed their first expedition to learn the “dialect” of herring.

Kongsberg is strengthening its long-standing relationship with Norway’s Institute of Marine Research by becoming a major partner in the new CRIMAC centre – bringing industry and science together to improve the monitoring of marine ecosystems and develop state-of-the-art tools to expand the boundaries of knowledge and innovation.