On Wed, Oct 7, 2015 at 5:54 PM, Eliot Miranda <eliot.miranda at gmail.com> wrote:
> Dear Friends and Colleagues,

Hi Eliot,

>     as you may know, Sharks, as apex predators, are vital to maintaining
> healthy marine ecosystems, and at the same time, their populations are
> plummeting due to human actions.  It is estimated for example that the
> population of pelagic oceanic white tip sharks is reducing by 17% per year
> [1] and I've heard (can't find a reference) that populations in the eastern
> indian/western pacific are at 1% of normal levels.  Such reductions in
> populations create "trophic cascades" that produce wide-ranging changes in
> populations of different species all the way down the food chain [2].  And
> the marine ecosystem is a key source of human nutrition; it comprises
> between 13% and 17% of global human protein intake [3].

Recently, I talk with some people from my research institute who are working
on Shark behavior modeling in the CHARC program :
http://www.la-reunion.ird.fr/le-programme-charc
Sorry this is in French only

They use acoustic marks on sharks in order to locate them thanks to a
surveillance network.
The idea is not only to manage the risks regarding sharks but also to
use them to have information about ocean's environment parameters.
I start to discuss a little bit with them in order to model sharks behavior.

>   As you may also know, there is currently a shark attack crisis in New
> South Wales [4].  While most people in the region oppose killing sharks in
> response to the crisis, existing solutions, netting and culling reduce those
> same threatened populations of sharks upon which the sustainability of
> marine food supply d ecosystems depend [5], and are arguably ineffective
> [6].  Apparently the most successful approach at avoiding attacks is the use
> of human spotters, as used in Cape Town, where people in tall towers scan
> the sea close to shore [6].
>
>   But please watch this Youtube video [7] from Pismo Beach, California.  The
> shark is spotted at about 1:20 into the video.  This drone, a phantom 3, is
> sending live video back to the operators, who are using remote control.
> What we can see from this video is that the point of view of drones is far
> superior to that of spotters.
>
>   My first thought is that autonomous drones could provide a cheap and
> scalable solution to patrolling beaches to prevent shark attacks.  I expect
> that processors like the Pi 2 have easily enough processing power to both
> plan and execute search patterns along beaches, and perform the image
> recognition necessary to reliably detect potentially dangerous sharks.  A
> drone might also be able autonomously to visit surfers and swimmers near to
> the shark and warn them, either by some signal such as flashing red LEDs or
> an audible message (language issues notwithstanding).  The drone would have
> to be able to identify swimmers and surfers in the water (not easy; sharks
> confuse seals and surfers all the time), but computing an optimal route to
> visit suspected swimmers should be relatively easy :-).
>
>   I imagine that sooner or later it will be possible to construct cheap
> rugged solar powered docking/charging shelters that drones could depart from
> and return to, to charge and shelter from the elements after patrols.
> Satellite communications could provide status reports for maintenance.

This is a really interesting project. My lab is also interested by
using drones for environmental surveillance.
I can talk with my colleagues working on sharks if this is something
that they envision for the future.
Another idea is to use marine drones.

Regards
-- 
Serge Stinckwich
UCBN & UMI UMMISCO 209 (IRD/UPMC)
Every DSL ends up being Smalltalk
http://www.doesnotunderstand.org/