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

这一小型企业创新研究(SBIR)第一阶段项目的更广泛影响/商业潜力侧重于改进方法，以检测和抑制五大湖中的七鳃鳗，这是一种目前需要在生态系统规模上进行无情、持续和代价高昂的控制工作的有害物种。该项目开始开发小型、可重新定位、现场部署的设备，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，以支持生态系统层面的环境健康成果，并使估计每年70亿美元的商业渔业受益。通过取代对外来入侵者的化学和人工控制，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，五大湖是一种重要的自然资源，为该地区3500多万人提供水安全。随着全球水生入侵者每年造成的损失超过3000亿美元，推动生态系统保护和恢复进展的创新将具有广泛的吸引力，并在任何需要保护栖息地的地方得到应用。扩大可用工具集使管理者和当地社区能够在最清楚原因和后果的层面上对外来入侵者采取行动。该项目对现有技术进行可行性研究，从适应水产养殖工作流程到现场无人控制七鳃鳗。这种设备的基本特征本质上类似于最近出现的机器人水产养殖系统中自动化鱼类管理的解决方案。现有的检测和分类模型有望很好地转移到像七鳃鳗这样在形态上截然不同的类别。这个项目的主要挑战很可能来自一个物种独特的生物学和感觉生态，它对这里使用的物理设备的反应完全未知。一组人工流实验旨在将七鳃鳗带入放置在它们路径上的设备中。七鳃鳗对一种针对成像、分类和选择性移除的特定需求进行了优化的设备可能会有什么反应？在详细了解七鳃鳗化学感觉生态学的基础上，这项工作还检查了信息素线索在通过设备引导七鳗鱼移动方面的有效性。这一奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并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，被认为值得支持。

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.