Using automatic species recognition and artificial intelligence to fight illegal fish discards and revolutionise fisheries control

Proposals should develop innovative and cost-effective solutions for automatic species recognition and quantification and assessment of health status of species (e.g. presence of parasites), and automatically analyse Remote Electronic Monitoring video footage, rapid DNA-based assays and sensor data in real-time. They should also develop mechanisms to ensure that the data collected by the cameras and sensors to be automatically analysed cannot be tampered with and that the system can automatically identify cases of system malfunction or missing information. Additionally, proposals should test the suggested solutions in real conditions, including the development of at least three pilot cases in three different European seas. They should also analyse vulnerabilities, dependencies and critical infrastructure in expanding the use of the solutions to Europe and worldwide (e.g. Regional Fisheries Management Organisations and Sustainable Fisheries Partnership Agreements).

Moreover, proposals should investigate possibilities for the integration of the results of the artificial intelligence analyses for the purposes of automated catch recording and reporting recommend effective designs of remote monitoring systems to cover processing activities on board of fishing vessels, and explore the possibilities of the system to contribute to the identification of parasites in processed fish (e.g. via DNA-based assays). They should also recommend standardised remote electronic monitoring formats for the exchange of the information between different control authorities or to be used for scientific purposes, including standards based on FLUX that could be potentially proposed for recognition by UN/CEFACT.

Also importantly, proposals should analyse how fisheries data, containing private information, can be shared in an anonymized and safe way complying with EU data protection rules (General Data Protection Regulation).

Finally, they should explore and recommend strategies to overcome possible resistance, by all stakeholders/parties, to the implementation of the innovative solutions and propose different ways for effective implementation.

In this topic the integration of the gender dimension (sex and gender analysis) in research and innovation content is not a mandatory requirement.