SBIR Phase I: Adapting uncrewed aquaculture management to control sea lamprey and to protect wild salmonid fisheries of the Great Lakes

这一小企业创新研究（SBIR）第一阶段项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力集中在改进方法，用于检测和抑制五大湖的七鳃鳗，这是一种目前需要在生态系统规模上进行无情，持续和昂贵的控制努力的有害生物。该项目启动了小型、可移动、现场部署的设备的开发，这些设备能够执行一系列评估和选择性控制功能。这一努力的成功将引入一个重要的新工具，以加强生态系统层面的环境健康成果，并使每年约70亿美元的商业渔业受益。通过取代化学和人工控制外来入侵者，该项目有助于保护五大湖的生态系统完整性和功能、生物多样性和环境质量，这是一种重要的自然资源，为该地区3 500多万人提供水安全。由于水生入侵者每年在全球造成的损失超过3000亿美元，推动生态系统保护和恢复的创新将在需要保护栖息地的地方具有广泛的吸引力和应用。扩大可用的工具集，使管理人员和当地社区采取行动，打击外来入侵者的水平上的原因和后果是最尖锐的feeling.This项目进行了可行性研究，现有的技术，从水产养殖工作流程，以适应无人控制的海七鳃鳗在外地。这种设备的基本特征本质上类似于机器人水产养殖系统中最近出现的自动鱼类管理解决方案。现有的检测和分类模型，预计将转移到一个类的形态不同的七鳃鳗。这个项目的主要挑战很可能来自一个物种的独特生物学和感官生态学，他们对这里使用的物理设备的反应是完全未知的。一组人工溪流实验旨在将七鳃鳗带入放置在其路径上的设备中。七鳃鳗会对针对成像，分类和选择性去除的特定需求进行优化的设备做出什么反应？通过对七鳃鳗化学感受生态学的详细了解，这项工作还研究了通过设备引导七鳃鳗运动的信息素线索的功效。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估来支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project focuses on improved methods for detecting and suppressing sea lampreys in the Great Lakes, a pest species that currently requires relentless, sustained, and costly control efforts at ecosystem scale. The project initiates the development of small, relocatable, field-deployed devices, capable of performing a range of assessment and selective control functions. Success in this effort will introduce an important new tool to bolster environmental health outcomes at an ecosystem level, and benefit commercial fisheries estimated at $7B annually. By replacing chemical and manual control of exotic invaders, the project contributes to the preservation of ecosystem integrity and function, biodiversity, and environmental quality of the Great Lakes, a vital natural resource providing water security for more than 35 million people in the region. With worldwide damage from aquatic invaders exceeding $300 billion annually, innovations driving advances in ecosystem protection and restoration will have wide appeal and application wherever habitats require protection. Broadening the available tool set empowers managers and local communities to act against exotic invaders at the level where causes and consequences are most acutely felt.This project performs a feasibility study of existing technologies from aquaculture workflows for adaptation to the uncrewed control of sea lampreys in the field. The essential features of such a device are inherently similar to recently emerged solutions for automated fish management in robotic aquaculture systems. Existing models for detection and classification are expected to transfer well to a class as morphologically distinct as lampreys. The primary challenges to this project most likely arise from the unique biology and sensory ecology of a species whose responses to the physical device used here are completely unknown. A set of artificial stream experiments aims to entrain lampreys into devices placed into their path. How might lamprey react to a device optimized for the specific needs of imaging, classification, and selective removal? Informed by detailed knowledge of lamprey chemosensory ecology, the work also examines the efficacy of pheromonal cues for channeling lamprey movement through the device.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.