Tag: lobsters

DORIS on the high seas

Yesterday was the first test of the full DORIS marine mapping system I’m developing with Amber Teacher and David Hodgson at Exeter University. We went out on a fishing boat from Mylor harbour for a 5 hour trip along the Cornish coast. It’s a quiet season for lobsters at the moment, so this was an opportunity to practice the sampling without too much pressure. Researcher Charlie Ellis was working with Hannah Knott, who work with the National Lobster Hatchery and need to take photos of hundreds of lobsters and combine them with samples of their genetic material.

IMG_20130214_104502

By going out on the boats they get accurate GPS positioning in order to determine detailed population structures, and can sample lobsters that are small or with eggs and need to be returned to the sea as well as the ones the fishermen take back to shore to be sold. Each photograph consists of a cunning visual information system of positioning objects to indicate sex, whether they are for return or removal and a ruler for scale.

lobster

map

pot

Doris: Lobster mapping

A new project, coming from Borrowed Scenery’s Zizim project, converted into a scientific research tool in collaboration with the College of Life and Environmental Sciences at Exeter University and Helsinki University. Doris is named after the sea nymph from Greek mythology, and will be used for mapping Lobster catches on fishing boats so researchers working at the National Lobster Hatchery in Padstow can easily build up a picture of how the animal’s condition relates to location, sea conditions and tide.

Here is an initial plan for how the thing will work:

The main complexities include locating open data sources for sea states and tides and creating an interface that works easily enough on a small fishing boat under various weather conditions – for example touch screens aren’t much use if you’re wearing gloves. Approaches to try include using the physical buttons, shaking, or voice input. As with previous FoAM projects Boskoi and Zizim, this will be built on the Ushahidi platform. Source repo location to follow…