(Montreal, Quebec) Today, Canada’s Ocean Supercluster announced the AI for Scalable Fisheries Monitoring Project. This project will modernize fisheries monitoring with Artificial Intelligence to make electronic monitoring (EM) more affordable for fishers and more effective for fisheries management. Through collaboration, the project will create the necessary AI infrastructure for monitoring programs to seamlessly integrate AI into their workflow. This project will enable monitoring programs to scale their operations without incurring high costs for video review, data processing, and storage. By addressing bottlenecks in data collection and processing, AI-enabled EM can be scaled up to provide key decision-making capabilities for fishers and fisheries management.
The project will drive commercialization through product development to bolster AI capabilities and through strong partnerships with commercial fisheries, Indigenous fisheries, regulators, NGOs, and EM providers. Together with partners like TeemFish, OnDeck Fisheries AI will be establishing technology integrations and validating pricing models for broader market accessibility.
The AI for Scalable Fisheries Management Project is led by Vancouver based OnDeck Fisheries AI, with project partners and collaborators: Teem Fish Monitoring Inc., Ha’oom Fisheries Society, Snap Information Technologies. Ltd., The Canadian Groundfish Research and Conservation Society, Ocean Wise, Goodfish Seafood Co., and J.O. Thomas & Associates LTD. Through its allotted funding under the Pan Canadian AI Strategy (PCAIS) Program, Canada’s Ocean Supercluster is providing $1.5 million in project funding with the balance of funding coming from project partners.
An estimated $80 billion is lost every year due to illegal and mismanaged fisheries, according to The World Bank & FAO. Climate change and growing fishing effort continue to put further pressure on fish stocks. At the same time, global supply chains, consumers, and regulators are requiring greater levels of transparency. Fisheries monitoring is key to ensuring compliance and informing fisheries management. However, current monitoring strategies rely heavily on manual video review, and thus cannot be scaled up to meet this surging demand. The industry projects a 10-12x increase in vessels needing video review for electronic monitoring (EM) in the next decade. In close collaboration with project partners, OnDeck is bridging this critical gap, ensuring scalable and affordable access to EM technology.
Quotes:
“Through the Pan-Canadian Artificial Intelligence Strategy, the Government of Canada is pleased to support Canada’s Ocean Cluster as it drives AI solutions for Canadian ocean companies. This scalable fisheries project, one of nine projects announced today by OSC, will help combat global overfishing and contribute to sustainable development goals.” – The Honourable François-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry
“AI in ocean has the potential to help transform the way we do ocean business. Today Canada’s Ocean Supercluster announced the AI for Scaleable Fisheries Monitoring Project advancing electronic monitoring capabilities that make it more cost effective and efficient to manage the fishery. This project will help users to integrate AI into their workflow and enable a more efficient way of data review and storage.” – Kendra MacDonald, CEO, Canada’s Ocean Supercluster
About Canada’s Ocean Supercluster
Canada’s Ocean Supercluster accelerates the development and commercialization of made-in-Canada ocean solutions in energy transition, food security, future of transport, and climate change while also growing more companies, creating more jobs, and attracting ocean talent. As Canada’s national ocean cluster, the OSC is a convenor of members, partners, and networks and a catalyst for transformative growth that helps build the robust ecosystem needed to help realize Ambition 2035 – a 5X growth potential in ocean in Canada by 2035. To date, the OSC has approved more than 85 projects with a total value of more than $400 million which will deliver more than 200 new made-in-Canada ocean products, processes, and services to sell to the world. For more information visit oceansupercluster.ca
Media Contacts:
Nancy Andrews
Canada’s Ocean Supercluster
nancy.andrews@oceansupercluster.ca