Commission weighs the use of drones to police fishing quotas

Researchers are developing drones to tackle illegal fishing in controlled waters, proposing to use the unmanned crafts to monitor the activities of trawlers and relay an alarm when suspicious activity is observed.

Two projects, being run by research teams in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and a UK government-financed project in Wales, had representatives in Brussels this week to present their wares to the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, which oversees fish stocks and polices quotas in EU member states.

There is evidence that one in every five fish in the world is caught illegally. Not only does pirate fishing carry a high environmental cost, but it threatens coastal economies.

Small drones with high-definition cameras and other sensors can be bought for just a few thousands of euros rather than the millions that it currently costs to purchase and operate helicopters or navy patrols.

The military was the first to appreciate the potential of drone tech and invested heavily in it, but civilian operators are catching up fast, with prices for commodity electronics falling every year.

Welsh demo

The €86 million ASTRAEA project has been granted permission to use 7,100 square kilometres of segregated airspace – the only agreement of its kind in Europe – stretching over the Welsh coast.

“It’s a great playground for developing applications,” said Jeremy Howitt, assistant technical director of QinetiQ, a large UK defence contractor formed in 2001 from the government’s Defence Evaluation and Research Agency.

A demonstration drone manufactured by a Swedish company, Unmanned Systems Group will take off at the end of May from the Welsh village of Llanbedr, and monitor fishing activity below. “It’s about building a database of activities,” Howitt noted.

Half of the funding for the project is coming from the innovation agency, Innovate UK, (formerly the Technology Strategy Board).

The rest is coming from the partners co-leading the project, including BAE Systems, Airbus Defence & Space, Rolls Royce and Thales, five universities and a number of small businesses.

MIT swarm drones

Barry Davies, a project manager with Cardiff-based BCB International, is taking part in a project with MIT researchers to develop a coordinated team of drones that will carry out surveillance on fishing at sea.   

His company was introduced to MIT researchers last year at a brokerage event organising by the Welsh Government and the university. 

“We’re working out an algorithm for a pack of drones to swarm around a boat and actually intercept it,” he said. Pilots will communicate with a lead drone, which will be programmed to take charge and give orders to the other members of the fleet.

MIT ‘Waterfly’ project

As well as flying, the MIT craft is being designed to land on the water, which will give it a chance to recharge through the kinetic power of the lapping waves. “Seeing it land and take off from water is like something out of Star Wars,” Davies said.

Inclement weather remains a big challenge. And drones do not fly very well when they are controlled by humans, admitted Davies. “The moment you put a person into the loop, ten to one you’re going to crash it,” he said. Automated systems are more reliable but also more expensive to operate.

In addition to monitoring fishing boats, drones could be adapted to tackle other issues, for example, looking for pollution, collecting water samples for environmental testing and aiding search-and-rescue operations and border patrols, Davies added.

Challenges

The technology would be helpful for industrial fishing operators and retailers keen to keep illegally caught fish out of their supply chains. Coastguard patrols with small budgets would almost certainly welcome them too.

“The technology is not the problem, regulation is,” said Howitt. Countries like Sweden, the UK, and France, whose rules have liberalised drone flights, may be potential customers, but the majority of countries in Europe do not have rules in place for this kind of activity.

There are also restrictions on transporting drones. “It’s a nightmare to ship them around,” said Davies. “When [customs] see a ‘drone passport’, they want to get in there and rip [the machine] apart.”

In addition, there is a negative public perception of drones to overcome. Small demonstrations have already been staged in Welsh coastal towns protesting about drone testing.

Flying drones over the sea carries less of a safety concern than sending them out over a city, but there is competition with flight corridors. Pilots’ associations are especially wary about unmanned and manned aircraft co-existing together in the sky. At the moment, Howitt’s project is sharing airspace with flights coming and going to Dublin and Belfast, but a more long-term solution will involve a complicated timetable worked out between government and airport authorities.

There are also competing ideas. A joint venture between the Pew Charitable Trusts and the UK Satellite Applications Catapult has established a smart monitoring system over coasts.

The project entails scanning boat transponders, which communicate their whereabouts to overflying satellites. However, transponders may not be present in all boats, and can be switched off by vessel captains.