This grant supported a project that emerged from a 2018 ‘Fishackathon’ event, partly sponsored by G.I.F.T. The project developed and tested a new way to remotely monitor illegal fishing activity, by monitoring the sound of boats underwater, through hydrophone technology and smart buoys. Illegal fishing costs millions of dollars per year and significant environmental harm, by contributing to over fishing. In the Hauraki Gulf, the snapper and lobster populations are at an all-time low and quotas have been slashed substantially, in the case of the lobster by 50%.

One of the major threats to the Hauraki Gulf is illegal fishing pressure, especially in marine reserves (though only 0.3% of the Hauraki Gulf is legally protected). The only way to currently monitor illegal fishing activity is to be out on the water looking for it, which is expensive and time intensive.

The project team successfully developed a real time underwater boat detecting system: the ‘Taringa’. The Taringa transmits accoustic data to the Cloud through the cell phone network. From there, automated detection algorithms were developed and run on the live stream data as it was deposited in the Cloud. Email alerts of detections (for example, fishing boats in marine reserves) were sent through to the research team.

The initial prototype provided excellent information for further development. The main bug was “drop outs” in information due to poor network connections and rough weather.

Two improvements identified were:

1.       Switching from using the mobile network to satellites, to remove any significant drop outs due to bad weather and network strength. The use of satellites will help reduce power consumption, and the team will also increase the battery bank and the size of the solar panels. Hydrophones could also be deployed in remote locations if they don’t have to rely on the cellular network.

2.       Using multiple hydrophones for source localisation, to provide information on exactly where the boats are, within or outside marine reserves.

An additional benefit of the project was the opportunity to highlight the importance of marine protection and compliance to protect the Hauraki Gulf. Project lead Craig Radford gave public talks to adults and school children about the use of underwater sound as a monitoring tool, why the Hauraki Gulf is a national treasure and the importance of protecting the mauri or life force of the Gulf.

This prototype has the potential to become a cost-effective and powerful way to monitor marine compliance within marine reserves and protected areas, within the Hauraki Gulf and New Zealand’s exclusive economic zone and territorial seas.

The research team is seeking funding to develop the prototype further and is also discussing the potential of the ‘Taringa’ with Ngati Manuhuri, who are excited about the prospect of being able to monitor their rohe remotely.