USVs Could Deter IUU Fishing
August 29th, 2023
Via the US Naval Institute, a report on how unmanned saildrones deployed primarily for maritime security at present, can support conservation efforts:
In the opening scenes of Top Gun: Maverick, Admiral Chester Cain tells Maverick, “These planes you’ve been testing, Captain, one day, sooner than later, they won’t need pilots at all . . . the future is coming, and you’re not in it.” The Coast Guard faces a similar reckoning. Autonomous technology is an attractive solution to many maritime security challenges. Autonomous oceangoing vessels, for example, could be a critical force multiplier in combating illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing. As the Coast Guard continues to increase its support of a free and open Indo-Pacific, it must expedite the deployment of autonomous technology to build its capacity to monitor, detect, and deter IUU fishing.
USVs as Deterrence
The presence of Coast Guard assets deters illegal fishing to some extent. This likely would be the case whether the asset were a cutter or an autonomous USV patrolling the high seas. If bad actors know a Coast Guard asset is in the area, they are more likely to check their practices and location before setting fishing lines.When a Coast Guard vessel is unavailable or unable to operate in a region for an extended period, autonomous USVs could be used to observe, detect, and deter IUU. In addition, the data collected by the USVs could support global transparency efforts and supply allies with critical information within the maritime domain. Following President Joe Biden’s recent announcement expanding the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument, USVs could be used to provide presence in waters that are far from any support or persistent presence from a Coast Guard asset.
Commercially Available
USVs already have proved to be a viable tool for maritime domain awareness. The Coast Guard conducted a 30-day proof-of-concept in 2020, testing three different autonomous uncrewed surface vehicles. Yet, three years later, these “low-cost maritime domain awareness” solutions have yet to see active use by the Coast Guard. As the pilot study report noted, USVs could be a useful in identifying fishing vessel activity and supporting search and rescue. Further, reports from USVs could allow the Coast Guard to adaptively deploy cutter assets to areas of concentrated fishing effort.USVs are already supporting maritime domain awareness in other regions. The Saildrone has undertaken both maritime security and scientific missions. For example, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) tasked three Saildrones to sail more than 6,000 nautical miles collecting fisheries data, which in turn supported the Alaska Pollock Stock Assessment. In another 2021 partnership with NOAA, five Saildrones sailed into the eye of a hurricane. The U.S. Fifth Fleet has deployed Saildrones across the Arabian Gulf and has a goal of deploying 100 more by the end of summer 2023. In addition, the Fourth Fleet is preparing to deploy USVs to counter transnational criminal organizations and Chinese IUU fishing in both the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans off Central and South America.
NOAA and the Navy have integrated and successfully deployed Saildrone at scale, further demonstrating the applicability and utility of the technology. A USV program could be implemented immediately using the infrastructure and standard operating procedures established by Fifth Fleet. As Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Linda Fagan stated, “Tomorrow looks different. So will we. We will be a more adaptive and connected Coast Guard that generates sustained readiness, resilience, and capability—in new ways—to enhance our Nation’s maritime safety, security, and prosperity.” The Coast Guard must be innovative and able to adapt to the changing maritime landscape. Building capacity by deploying advanced technology in a public-private partnership would greatly advance the service, inspire its workforce, and change the game in maritime security.
Lack of Resources
The growing demand for assets in the Indo-Pacific has exacerbated the Coast Guard’s workforce shortage. The Indo-Pacific region covers more than 65 percent of the global maritime waters and 56 percent of the global ocean capture fisheries. With thousands of fishing and shipping vessels roaming the high seas, the Coast Guard requires additional support and ways to increase its presence. With current resource allocations, the service has little chance of covering this area of responsibility effectively to protect biodiversity and curb illegal fishing.Autonomous USVs could help fill the void. Autonomous seagoing USVs require less manning, less support, and can provide the necessary presence to deter illicit activity, offering a solution to the current and future manpower challenge.
The Human Element
While autonomous USVs are useful, they cannot replace a human in every situation. Manned ships and crews still will be needed to represent the United States, the Coast Guard, and democracy. A USV cannot provide the same relationship. However, this should not be seen as a shortfall, but rather a capability that must be strengthened. A USV can augment the mission and serve as a force multiplier. Imagine instead of sending one fast response cutter (FRC) 2,000 miles by itself, the Coast Guard sent an FRC and four Saildrones, which were able to expand and increase the coverage and presence in the region.The Gray Area of Regulatory Framework
Another challenge is the recognition of and regulatory framework for autonomous vehicles on the high seas. Consider the seizures of USVs by Iran in 2022 in the Red Sea and China in 2016 in the South China Sea. Following the 2016 incident, the Pentagon responded: “It is ours. It is clearly marked; we’d like to have it back and [would] like this to never happen again.” But the legal framework is not clear on what authorities a USV is granted.Questions for the future include how to treat these situations and what policy framework is needed. If a Chinese distant-water fishing vessel in the Indo-Pacific rams and sinks a Coast Guard USV, what legal repercussions should be pursued? The contingencies and legal response will need to be clear, concise, and well thought out, but this should not deter the Coast Guard from moving forward. Questions of USV management are already being addressed in the private and public sector on land, and these policies will help inform policies for the maritime environment. However, challenges will remain inside national jurisdictions and on the high seas. A similar challenge will play out in space in the coming years in terms of jurisdiction, responsibility, and legal authorities.
Looking Forward
There is no foreseeable future in which the Coast Guard would be better off without autonomous vehicles to support its Indo-Pacific strategy. As Admiral Thomas H. Collins stated in his 2004 essay, “Change and Continuity—The U.S. Coast Guard Today”: “Adapting to change is one of the most difficult tasks we face as individuals or as an organization, but with change comes new opportunities. We must inspire a culture of innovation . . . in all mission areas so as to enhance productivity and reduce workload—all the while driving towards quality outcomes.” Adopting this technology is not a question of when, but how fast.While USVs are not a panacea for all maritime security problems, they could increase the Coast Guard’s presence and deter illegal fishing. Getting eyes on the water could bring new opportunities for the service to better respond to the changing threats within the Indo-Pacific area of responsibility.
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Read More »Digital Reefs
August 19th, 2023
Via Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, a look at efforts to create the first coral reef digital twin, a multidisciplinary effort led by Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution:
The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) $5 million to participate in NSF’s ground breaking Convergence Accelerator Program. The project, led by WHOI scientist Anne Cohen, builds the world’s first Coral Reef Digital Twin, a 4-dimensional virtual replica of a living coral reef powered by state-of-the art data and models. “Digital Reefs” will be accessible and usable by coral reef stakeholders around the world who are making critical decisions every day to manage and protect these valuable ocean ecosystems.
The Phase 2 team includes: Siemens Technology, The Nature Conservancy (TNC), Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego, and Stanford University, in addition to WHOI. Also on the team are Mote Marine Laboratory, the Marshall Islands Conservation Society, University of Guam, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), National Academy of Marine Research (NAMR) Taiwan, and Ebiil Society, Palau, whose major role will be to develop user-inspired modules, lead training workshops and advance the use of Digital Reefs in reef restoration.
“Globally, coral reefs support almost one billion people and are one of the most diverse ecosystems on the planet. But coral reefs continue to decline at an unprecedented rate, despite a surge in data, funding, and political will in the last couple of decades,” said Cohen. “We found the problem is not lack of access to data and information. It is a lack of access, by decision makers—fishermen, managers, risk assessors, government agencies—to intuitive, interactive, actionable data. Almost everyone nowadays has a cellphone, there is a lot of data out there, people just can’t use it.”
“Our goal is to facilitate universal access to data and information that right now are available to just a handful of people. Democratization of information is the only way we can truly ensure that coral reefs have a future on our planet, and Digital Reefs is how we get there,” said Cohen.
The 21st century has brought with it unprecedented challenges for coral reefs, mainly from climate change, demanding new and innovative approaches to management, conservation, and restoration. Fundamental to effective decision-making is access to science-based data, information, and decision making tools.
“As reefs around the world suffer, so do the diverse and often vulnerable coastal ecosystems and humans that depend upon them,” said Joe Pollock, Ph.D., Senior Coral Reef Resilience Scientist at TNC. “We work to empower local communities with the tools, information, and partnerships needed to better safeguard reefs and the lives and livelihoods they sustain. Digital Reefs has the potential to revolutionize reef management and restoration by providing fine-scale, actionable information in an immersive, engaging, and highly visual format.”
Digital Twins are already widely used in industry and healthcare, where exact virtual replicas of engines, railway networks, and even human bodies are used to understand and test what-if scenarios, facilitate collaboration amongst different teams, and assist with decision making. The WHOI-led project, Digital Reefs: A Globally Coordinated, Universally Accessible Digital Twin Network for the Coral Reef Blue Economy, will develop the Digital Reefs prototype of Palmyra Atoll, and apply the prototype technology to reefs in the Marshall Islands and Taiwan as a test of their scaling model to build a global Digital Reefs network.
The Coral Reef Digital Twin is a virtual representation of a real reef, with all its features, consistently updated with new data from sensors and satellites. The digital twin allows users access to the dynamic, 3-dimensional system from a laptop or cellphone anywhere in the world to get real-time the information needed for sustainable harvesting of reef resources. Image credit: Cohen Lab © Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
Digital Reefs translates complex data and numerical model output into a digital replica of a coral reef. Users accessing the Digital Reef from their computer or cell phone will be immersed in a dynamic 4-D visualization of currents and corals, rather than a spreadsheet of numbers, although the supporting data will be downloadable. Users can move across the reef, and scuba dive into its depths to access information about water flow, temperatures, and reef inhabitants. The Digital Reefs platform will offer users the opportunity to visualize the reef in years past, and in the future as sea level rises and the ocean warms. Decision making tools enable users to change the reef —virtually— and examine the impact of the proposed changes, such as building a hotel or dredging a channel for boat access. Stakeholders can visualize how future climate change will affect their reef and the specific areas where they fish and farm. Restoration practitioners will be able to test which areas of the reef are optimal for restoration and to visualize larval dispersal patterns from restored areas.
“We’re in a crisis of survival for coral reefs,” said Stanford’s Steve Palumbi, “and we’re also in a crisis of data complexity. Everything about a reef is complex, so how do you make a decision about saving your local reef for your community and family when the answer is complicated? Digital Reefs takes data from the physics, biology, physiology, and ecology of a complex reef and shows you what its future is likely to be, depending on what you do, and decisions you make. We are all excited about contributing what we do best, to make this effort work.”
“Our work with NSF and WHOI highlights the boundless opportunities we now have available to us through digital twin technology,” said Virginie Maillard, Head of Siemens Technology US. “As we enter the next phase of this project, Siemens Technology will leverage its expertise in industrial digital twin to create a tangible digital twin of the coral reef that can be utilized by all, no matter background or expertise, for the greater purpose of collaboration to save our planet’s marine ecosystem.”
“There is a unique opportunity in offering people immersive access to underwater habitats,” said Stuart Sandin, professor of marine ecology, at UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography. “The growth of digital data is a first step in understanding coral reefs, but the critical next step is in providing easy access to these data; the Digital Reefs project will build the tools to provide just this access.”
In September 2021, the NSF Convergence Accelerator Program launched the 2021 cohort and awarded $21 million across 28 multidisciplinary teams, focused on Phase 1 of the Track E: Networked Blue Economy and Track F: Trust & Authenticity in Communication Systems. In September 2022, NSF has made an additional $30 million investment in the Networked Blue Economy to advance use-inspired solutions addressing national-scale societal challenges. Track E: The Networked Blue Economy aims to create a smart, integrated, connected, and open ecosystem for ocean innovation, exploration, and sustainable utilization. The Track E Cohort was 16 teams in Phase 1 and is now six teams in Phase 2.
This work was funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation, and leveraged previous research that was supported by the Arthur Vining Davis Foundation.
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