Resource investigation for Kichiji rockfish by autonomous underwater vehicle in Kitami-Yamato bank off Northern Japan
© Nishida et al.; licensee Springer 2014
Received: 17 January 2014
Accepted: 9 May 2014
Published: 23 July 2014
Expensive kichiji rockfish is important catch for fishers and decreas significantly by over fishing. Common investigation method by the trawl for the fish is difficult to survey on rough terrain and need for big support of the ship. This paper proposes resource investigation method for kichiji rockfish using autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) Tuna-Sand, and image processing method for precise measurement of the fish length. The AUV Tuna-Sand was developed for survey of material and energy resources in deep-sea such, and can observe natural seafloor automatically using only mounted sensors and devices. Our image processing makes a photograph possible to measure accurately the fish length by color correction for removing the unevenness of the brightness and distortion correction.
The AUV Tuna-Sand surveyed for 24 hours in Kitami-Yamato Bank off Northern Japan. The vehicle took about 5,300 pictures of the seafloor during five dives in the bank. 37 kichiji rockfish of about 90 to 340 mm long were in all photographs. The survey results showed the fish of 150 to 200 mm long was most often found in all dives although the number of the othSer long was not many. Six mosaic images made by our method showed that all kichiji rockfish stay on the seafloor by oneself without swam and the shortest distance between kichiji rockfish was 4.0 m.
KeywordsAUV Resource investigation Photomosaic
Expensive kichiji rockfish (Sebastolobus macrochir) live in the Pacific side of main island, Pacific ide Hokkaido in Japan and southwest Okhotsk Sea. The catch of the fish has decreased significantly by over fishing. Widely regular survey of the biomass for kichiji rockfish is necessary to keep its sustainable use []. The biomass of benthic kichiji rockfish is investigated commonly by combination of the trawl survey and swept-area method []. The method which can survey effectively in a wide are, is difficult to apply on rough terrain, and has a risk for damaging to the natural habitat. Researchers proposed other resource investigations method for kichiji rockfish such as method using deep-sea monitoring system [,] and method using manned submersible vessel [,], because the fish usually stay on seafloor without moving and have a high visibility in the photograph. Two methods can survey the biomass of the fish without sampling. However, the monitoring system requires the support from many ship staff for towing type and the submersible vessel limits duration time for the survey to ensure the safety of the vessel operator.
The AUV Tuna-Sand [,] was developed for the survey of material and energy resources in deep-sea such as hydrothermal vent and methane hydrate. The vehicle can observe natural seafloor automatically using only mounted sensors and devices, and can be operated on every ship which has the crane for launching and lifting. We surveyed hydrothermal chimney and the seafloor using the AUV Tuna-Sand in many Japanese marine areas, and the vehicle dived 69th times for the survey since 2007. This paper proposes resource investigation method of benthic life using the AUV Tuna-Sand, reports the result of the survey for kichiji rockfish in Okhotsk Sea on June 2013.
Outline of AUV “Tuna-Sand”
Specification of the AUV Tuna-Sand
1.1 m × 0.7 m × 0.7 m
Thrusters 220 W × 4, 100 W × 2
Li-ion battery 50.4 V, 18 Ah × 4
INS, GPS, DVL, Depth sensor, SSBL
Video camera, Digital camera, Profiling sonar
Image processing method
Second processing in our method transforms the color correction image, considering navigation data and seafloor topography. The benthic life length cannot be measured from all photographs in the same scale, because seafloor topography changes camera-to-subject distance and water flow applies the vehicle attitude. The central projection of the camera distorts the photograph depending on the height and position of objective. Ortho-correction converts the images using navigation data and seafloor topography for precise measurement. Time-series altitude of the vehicle estimates the seafloor topography. Final processing in our method makes the photomosaic based on the vehicle trajectory.
Results and discussion
Outline of the survey
143 - 144
1,045 – 1,050
652 - 757
305 - 498
561 – 566
Cruising speed (m/s)
Cruising height (m)
Observation area (m2)
Number of kichiji
Density of kichiji (/ha)
This paper proposed resource investigation method by the AUV Tuna-Sand and image processing method for clear photomosaic. The investigation method can survey without big support of the ship, because the vehicle can navigate automatically on rough terrain where is difficult to operate by human and take high-resolution picture of seafloor. Our image processing can measure accurately the fish length and the biomass, because it corrects the photograph color for removing the unevenness of the brightness and image distortion. The survey results using our method in Kitami-Yamato bank showed the density of kichiji rockfish for each length. A photomosaic having uniform brightness shows the fish distribution. These results contribute to keep sustainable use of kichiji rockfish. Our method applies to survey the biomass of other benthic animals such as snow club. We will develop method that can survey the biomass of several benthic animals at one time.
The authors thank the staff of the fisheries research vessel HOKKO-MARU for their help and support. This work was supported by JST CREST “Establishment of core technology of the preservation and regeneration of marine biodiversity and ecosystems”.
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