UC San Diego

Methods for measuring fish populations are incredibly outdated. Even with rapid improvements in battery technology, compute power and camera systems in the last few years, the most popular techniques for counting fish and measuring their lengths employ humans. In this paper, I present FishSense as an alternative. By utilizing a compact 3-D camera, powerful embedded compute system, and easily-available off-the-shelf parts for assembly, the FishSense modules are sleek, cost-effective and modular systems able to slot into a wide variety of applications. By capturing both depth and color image data, these modules are able to measure the length of individual fish as well, offering an effective non-invasive solution to length

amp; biomass estimation. The hardware design allows for a high degree of modularity, with options for longer battery life, better performance, and applications in longer-term passive monitoring. The FishSense handheld model has been rigorously tested in several deployments, ranging from a small testing pool with toy fish, to a 70,000 gallon aquarium tank, to an active aquaculture center, with more planned in upcoming months, and preliminary software results from these deployments demonstrate the efficacy of the FishSense modules at measuring fish populations and sizes.