ENVIRONMENTAL
PROTECTION
Fish-i®: A Semi-Automated Method for Measuring Reef Fish
Species Population Density and Biomass
Prospero C. Naval, Jr., PhD 1 | Laura T. David, PhD 2
1 Department of Computer Science
2 Marine Science Institute
E-mail: [email protected]
The Philippines has the richest concentration of marine life in the entire planet,
making it the global center of marine shore fish biodiversity. The archipelago
provides habitat to close to 3,000 fish species. In order to sustain the various
communities and livelihood that thrive on a healthy marine environment, a close
watch must be kept on the state of our fishing sites. The standard method for
monitoring the health of a marine environment involves taking fish population
density and biomass measurements provide important documentation over time,
quantifying the success of reef protection and rehabilitation initiatives. The survey
results are crucial to the formulation of strategies to improve reef resilience and
increase productivity of reef fish communities. Traditional methods of conducting
the census require several dives over time by marine biologists with specialized
knowledge and expertise.
Fish-i® was developed to automate the process of conducting a UVC. It is a
stereovision-based UVC system that mimics the way people count fish
underwater, but makes the process more efficient. With Fish-i®, even divers with
minimal knowledge of fish can obtain high quality population and species
distribution measurements using a stereo camera rig and fish video analyzer
software that have been developed. A permanent visual record of the census is
available through a web application for later review, archiving, and data analysis.
The simplified process also allows for more frequent monitoring of reefs and can
be scaled up to thousands of sites.
UP Diliman SALIKSIKHAY | 19