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The
Nature Conservancy, Illinois’ Department of Natural Resources
and Whoossh Innovations are testing the use of artificial
intelligence to weed out Asian carp at Emiquon, a 6,000-acre
wetland along the Illinois River, the News Tribune reported.
Assistant Chief of Fisheries for Illinois Department of Natural
Resources Kevin Irons says they are combining AI technology with
a fish ladder, which is often used out west to help large river
fish like salmon climb dams.
“If carp can climb a fish ladder then we can do some things with
it,” he said. “We could identify them and pull them out of that
stream and we can put them in a bucket, a bin, a net to hold
them to be removed.”
Irons describes the sorting process as akin to crime scene
photos.
“Using this fish ladder, there’s an opportunity when they get to
the top of the ladder the technology basically takes many
pictures in just a second,” he said. “From that information, we
can tell what species of fish that is.”
The AI uses a “good fish/bad fish” identification to assist with
sorting, eliminating much of the physical labor required, Irons
said.
Unlike other barriers, this method would also allow native
species to pass through.
“This does give us an opportunity to put those deterrents in
place for carp and provide a solution for native fish to pass
while still being able to screen those fish to make sure we
don’t pass these carp unnecessarily,” Irons said. “So it really
allows us to manage our rivers for their best integrity even
when battling these invasive fish.”
Keeping the invasive fish out of the Great Lakes is a big part
of the researchers’ goal.
“Asian carp, in general, compete with all of our native fish for
food – they eat the plankton resources that all fish need when
they’re small, and they’re very good at it,” he said.
Irons said they are very happy with how the experiment is going.
“We’re getting images of fish as they go across and nearly 100%
accurate on what we can allow past and what we’ll pull back.”
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