Automatic detection, identification and counting of deep-water snappers on underwater baited video using deep learning

Deep-sea demersal fisheries in the Pacific have strong commercial, cultural, and recreational value, especially snappers (Lutjanidae) which make the bulk of catches. Yet, managing these fisheries is challenging due to the scarcity of data. Stereo-Baited Remote Underwater Video Stations (BRUVS) can p...

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Main Authors: Florian Baletaud, Sébastien Villon, Antoine Gilbert, Jean-Marie Côme, Sylvie Fiat, Corina Iovan, Laurent Vigliola
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Frontiers Media S.A. 2025-02-01
Series:Frontiers in Marine Science
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Online Access:https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmars.2025.1476616/full
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author Florian Baletaud
Florian Baletaud
Florian Baletaud
Sébastien Villon
Antoine Gilbert
Jean-Marie Côme
Sylvie Fiat
Corina Iovan
Laurent Vigliola
author_facet Florian Baletaud
Florian Baletaud
Florian Baletaud
Sébastien Villon
Antoine Gilbert
Jean-Marie Côme
Sylvie Fiat
Corina Iovan
Laurent Vigliola
author_sort Florian Baletaud
collection DOAJ
description Deep-sea demersal fisheries in the Pacific have strong commercial, cultural, and recreational value, especially snappers (Lutjanidae) which make the bulk of catches. Yet, managing these fisheries is challenging due to the scarcity of data. Stereo-Baited Remote Underwater Video Stations (BRUVS) can provide valuable quantitative information on fish stocks, but manually processing large amounts of videos is time-consuming and sometimes unrealistic. To address this issue, we used a Region-based Convolutional Neural Network (Faster R-CNN), a deep learning architecture to automatically detect, identify and count deep-water snappers in BRUVS. Videos were collected in New Caledonia (South Pacific) at depths ranging from 47 to 552 m. Using a dataset of 12,100 annotations from 11 deep-water snapper species observed in 6,364 images, we obtained good model performance for the 6 species with sufficient annotations (F-measures >0.7, up to 0.87). The correlation between automatic and manual estimates of fish MaxN abundance in videos was high (0.72 – 0.9), but the Faster R-CNN showed an underestimation bias at higher abundances. A semi-automatic protocol where our model supported manual observers in processing BRUVS footage improved performance with a correlation of 0.96 with manual counts and a perfect match (R=1) for some key species. This model can already assist manual observers to semi-automatically process BRUVS footage and will certainly improve when more training data will be available to decrease the rate of false negatives. This study further shows that the use of artificial intelligence in marine science is progressive but warranted for the future.
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publishDate 2025-02-01
publisher Frontiers Media S.A.
record_format Article
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spelling doaj-art-a16caf33672c49baab55349a2989bf742025-02-06T11:44:43ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Marine Science2296-77452025-02-011210.3389/fmars.2025.14766161476616Automatic detection, identification and counting of deep-water snappers on underwater baited video using deep learningFlorian Baletaud0Florian Baletaud1Florian Baletaud2Sébastien Villon3Antoine Gilbert4Jean-Marie Côme5Sylvie Fiat6Corina Iovan7Laurent Vigliola8ENTROPIE, Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD), UR, UNC, IFREMER, CNRS, Centre IRD de Nouméa, Noumea, New CaledoniaSoproner, Groupe GINGER, Noumea, New CaledoniaBurgeap, Groupe GINGER, Lyon, FranceENTROPIE, Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD), UR, UNC, IFREMER, CNRS, Centre IRD de Nouméa, Noumea, New CaledoniaSoproner, Groupe GINGER, Noumea, New CaledoniaBurgeap, Groupe GINGER, Lyon, FranceENTROPIE, Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD), UR, UNC, IFREMER, CNRS, Centre IRD de Nouméa, Noumea, New CaledoniaENTROPIE, Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD), UR, UNC, IFREMER, CNRS, Centre IRD de Nouméa, Noumea, New CaledoniaENTROPIE, Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD), UR, UNC, IFREMER, CNRS, Centre IRD de Nouméa, Noumea, New CaledoniaDeep-sea demersal fisheries in the Pacific have strong commercial, cultural, and recreational value, especially snappers (Lutjanidae) which make the bulk of catches. Yet, managing these fisheries is challenging due to the scarcity of data. Stereo-Baited Remote Underwater Video Stations (BRUVS) can provide valuable quantitative information on fish stocks, but manually processing large amounts of videos is time-consuming and sometimes unrealistic. To address this issue, we used a Region-based Convolutional Neural Network (Faster R-CNN), a deep learning architecture to automatically detect, identify and count deep-water snappers in BRUVS. Videos were collected in New Caledonia (South Pacific) at depths ranging from 47 to 552 m. Using a dataset of 12,100 annotations from 11 deep-water snapper species observed in 6,364 images, we obtained good model performance for the 6 species with sufficient annotations (F-measures >0.7, up to 0.87). The correlation between automatic and manual estimates of fish MaxN abundance in videos was high (0.72 – 0.9), but the Faster R-CNN showed an underestimation bias at higher abundances. A semi-automatic protocol where our model supported manual observers in processing BRUVS footage improved performance with a correlation of 0.96 with manual counts and a perfect match (R=1) for some key species. This model can already assist manual observers to semi-automatically process BRUVS footage and will certainly improve when more training data will be available to decrease the rate of false negatives. This study further shows that the use of artificial intelligence in marine science is progressive but warranted for the future.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmars.2025.1476616/fulldeep-water snapper fisheriesartificial intelligencesemi-automaticBRUVSfaster R-CNN
spellingShingle Florian Baletaud
Florian Baletaud
Florian Baletaud
Sébastien Villon
Antoine Gilbert
Jean-Marie Côme
Sylvie Fiat
Corina Iovan
Laurent Vigliola
Automatic detection, identification and counting of deep-water snappers on underwater baited video using deep learning
Frontiers in Marine Science
deep-water snapper fisheries
artificial intelligence
semi-automatic
BRUVS
faster R-CNN
title Automatic detection, identification and counting of deep-water snappers on underwater baited video using deep learning
title_full Automatic detection, identification and counting of deep-water snappers on underwater baited video using deep learning
title_fullStr Automatic detection, identification and counting of deep-water snappers on underwater baited video using deep learning
title_full_unstemmed Automatic detection, identification and counting of deep-water snappers on underwater baited video using deep learning
title_short Automatic detection, identification and counting of deep-water snappers on underwater baited video using deep learning
title_sort automatic detection identification and counting of deep water snappers on underwater baited video using deep learning
topic deep-water snapper fisheries
artificial intelligence
semi-automatic
BRUVS
faster R-CNN
url https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmars.2025.1476616/full
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