Single-Course Engelsk 5 ECTS

Applied Methods in Fisheries Technologies

Overall Course Objectives

The course provides students with practical skills and knowledge regarding the essential methodological tools for addressing challenges in the fishing industry. Through hands-on workshops, students will gain experience in planning experiments and acquiring quantitative knowledge to address a variety of research questions related to all phases of the fishing process (from gear design to catch reporting and processing). At the end of each hands-on workshop, the class will discuss the strengths and limitations of the experimental methods and tools covered, as well as possible innovative approaches and solutions. The final assignment of the course will see each student presenting a research question of choice and describe how it could be addressed experimentally by adopting the methodologies covered during the workshops.
The course emphasizes critical thinking, problem-solving, and practical skills, preparing students for careers in fisheries research and innovation, both in the industry and academia.

See course description in Danish

Identify key experimental approaches utilized for research and development in fisheries technologies.
Compare and contrast the desired properties and trade-offs of different netting materials.
Evaluate decision-making factors guiding gear size and design elements.
Utilize software tools to estimate net drag and predict the effects of gear design changes.
Design experiments for animal behavior studies to inform gear design and/or fishing practices.
Apply behavioral tree analysis concepts using software tools like Boris to inform gear design.
Set up and conduct experiments in a sand channel to quantify seabed impact of gear components.
Evaluate factors affecting the accuracy of automated species identification in electronic monitoring setups.
Apply stereo-camera observation techniques and data preparation steps for automated length estimation.
Explain the steps required to train a model for automated length estimate.
Evaluate technologies used to assess and classify the quality of catches.
Demonstrate problem-solving skills in presenting how to address experimentally a topic related to innovation in the fishing industry.

The course will cover the main fields of innovation in the fishing industry and offer the students hands-on experience on the key experimental approaches used for research in these topics.
For example, students will learn how to assess the properties of different netting materials under controlled conditions (e.g., abrasion testing, tensile strength testing); how to read a net plan; how to construct, mend and balance the lifting and sinking forces of a net; and how to quantify the impact of fishing gear on the seabed and benthic habitats under controlled laboratory condition.

The students will learn how to use important softwares for the fishing sector, such as CadTrawl, to model the drag of the trawl and it’s geometry during fishing, and Boris, to analyse underwater footage of fish inside fishing gears.

The course will also prepare the students on how to plan, set-up and conduct laboratory experiments to test animal’s responses to stimuli relevant to fishing (e.g. baits) and acquired footage for training of automated species and length detection through Artificial Intelligence. Moreover, the students will be introduced to the steps required to train models for automatic species detection and length estimate in fish catch images, as well as steps necessary to prepare the data for processing. Using the online free tool Google Colab and a pre-trained model, students will conduct object detection and instant segmentation to estimate fish length.

25335, Rcommended to have taken course number 25335

Spring semester
6 weeks block course
Second 6 weeks of the 13-weeks period