Fish sorting using machine vision

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In the Pacific Northwest of the United States, different species and stocks of Pacific salmon commingle as they migrate towards spawning areas. This often results in mixed-stock fisheries in which some stocks are abundant while others require protection. In fisheries that exploit complex stock mixtures, mass marking and mark-selective fishing emerged as a way to increase the harvest of hatchery fish while protecting natural stocks of concern. Currently, mass marking in this region involves clipping the adipose fin to provide a visual cue that allows differential retention of marked fish while requiring unmarked fish to be released in mark-selective fisheries. With about 200 million fish requiring mass marking each year, this program was clearly not feasible with the manual marking and tagging methods that were available in the early 1990's. In response to this need, Northwest Marine Technology (NMT) in cooperation with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, Bonneville Power Administration, and the United States Fish and Wildlife Service began developing a series of machine vision systems to automatically inject Decimal Coded Wire Tags (CWT) and excise the adipose fin on salmon and steelhead. Through consistent research and development, these partners created the AutoFish System. For more information, go to: http://www.nmt.us/products/afs/afs.htm.

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