Award

Tridentis Advanced Marine Vehicles (AMV) will employ its Autonomous Coastal Monitor (ACM) technology and advanced data processing techniques currently being pioneered at the University of Delaware (UD) to address the ecological problem of derelict crab pots, or “ghost pots”. A 2016 study (Bilkovic, Slacum, Zaveta, & Jeffrey, 2016) sponsored by NOAA estimated 12-20% of the blue crab traps deployed annually in the Chesapeake Bay are lost, killing more than 3.3 million crabs, or 4.5% of the 2014 harvest. The study also quantified the positive effect of removal efforts, suggesting that, on average, harvests increased 868 lbs. for each removed pot. The key opportunity this research will pursue is to dramatically reduce the time and cost of ghost pot identification and location, so that a greater proportion of limited conservation resources may be dedicated to removal. The research will pursue the use of autonomous surveys of ghost pot hot spots to generate a dataset suitable for processing using UD techniques, with the goal of producing a data product to guide removal team efforts. Phase I will determine the feasibility of using the ACM to generate a dataset suitable for processing, with subsequent research oriented towards creating a viable data product.