Home page of the AFISA project

 

 Project Summary

 

 

Most of European fish stocks are assessed using age-based models, and the cost of the acquisition of age data from otolith readings raises several million euros annually. Low uncertainty in age estimation is however reached for only 25% of fish stocks under ICES advising process. The impact of ageing errors on stock assessment is obvious though obscure. In this context, automated ageing systems would provide a mean to standardize ageing among laboratories and to control ageing consistency while reducing the cost of the acquisition of age data. No such system is currently available, although preliminary results provide the basis for such developments.

This two-year project aims at developing fully automated and robust systems for routine ageing. It will comprise four workpackages in addition to project management (WP0): the collation of the otolith material and the creation of bases of annotated otolith images (WP1), the development of algorithms for fish ageing automation from otolith features (WP2), the implementation these automated ageing modules in a software platform dedicated to otolith imaging (WP3), the cost-benefit analysis of the proposed automated ageing systems (WP4).

The whole processing chain from the acquisition of otolith data to the actual ageing issue using pattern recognition or statistical inference will be coped with. The demonstration component will include the demonstration of the degree of automation of the proposed systems and a cost-benefit analysis of these automated solutions for three case studies: cod from Faeroes, North Sea and North East Artic, plaice from the Eastern English Channel (VIId) and Iceland, and anchovy from the Bay of Biscay. The focus will be on demonstrating the consistency of automated age estimation with respect to the major steps of the processing chain and to the joint analysis of ageing precision and acquisition costs with respect to stock assessment objectives.

Co-ordinator:Ifremer
Steering comittee:AZTI, DIFRES, CEFAS, Ifremer
Cod case study

DIFRES

    

DIFRES

AZTI
 
Plaice case study

CEFAS

  
 
Anchovy case study

 

resp: AZTI

  
WP I Collation of otolith material and creation of databases of annotated images of otoliths

CEFAS

 WP II  Development of algorithms for automated fish age estimation

Ifremer

 WP III Software integration of the developed automated ageing systems

Ifremer

 WP IV Cost-benefit analysis of the proposed automated ageing systems

DIFRES

 

 List of Participants

 

 

 

Role

Number

Participant Name

Short Name

 WEB Link

Country

Entry Date

Exit Date

C0

1

Institut Français de Recherche pour l'Exploitation de la Mer

IFREMER

France

Month 1

Month 24

CR

2

Fundacion AZTI-AZTI Fundazioa

AZTI

Spain

Month 1

Month 24

CR

3

The Centre for Environment Fisheries & Aquaculture Science

CEFAS

UK

Month 1

Month 24

CR

4

Danish Institute for Fisheries Research

DIFRES

 http://www.dfu.min.dk/uk/default_uk.htm

Denmark

Month 1

Month 24

CR

5

Institute of Marine Research

IMR

Norway

Month 1

Month 24

CR

6

Marine Research Institute

MRI

Iceland

Month 1

Month 24

CR

7

University Polytechnic of Catalonia

UPC

Spain

Month 1

Month 24

 

[1] In addition to the participants listed in the table below, two other partners will participate to this project as sub-contractor of Ifremer: ENIB within the framework of on-going research collaboration with Ifremer, and NOESIS, a private company, collaborating with Ifremer in the development of the software TNPC.