DOD Announces Modernization of Artificial Intelligence To Counter Illegal Fishing

The Department of Defense has announced a new xView3 Challenge that will help the DOD to counter illegal and unregulated fishing activities.  The Defense Innovation Unit and Global Fishing Watch makes use of satellites to monitor the fishing activities and detect the Illegal Fishing activities. The xView3 is a competition that aims to attract skilled developers who can efficiently explore satellite data thereby detecting the Illegal Fishing activities which are otherwise not accessible to the public monitoring systems.

The satellite-based synthetic aperture radar data is capable of accessing the information even during cloudy weather and penetrate the darkness to find out the locations where the Illegal Fishing activities are taking place. The integration of advanced machine learning algorithms will allow automatically detecting and characterizing the vessels.

USCG deputy commandant Scott Buschman said, the DOD and its allies will collaborate with each other in detecting the illegal and unreported fishing activity to mitigate the further damages. He said, the US can provide illegal leadership in countering the IUU fishing challenges by creating partnerships, collaborations, and efficient networks.

The xView3 Challenge will provide the largest maritime datasets from the SAR satellites. The automated detection system of the vessels along with the SAR satellite data will enhance the monitoring of IUU fishing activities. The system will do efficient patrolling of the locations and easily detect suspected offenders.  DIU Director, Michael Brown said the new challenge aims to attract new ideas to counter such global safety and security challenges and put new solutions in place.