Norway stands out for its exemplary sustainability performance and is included in the top ten greenest countries in the world according to the Environmental Index. Despite this, climate change, biodiversity loss and human impact on the environment are also occurring in this Scandinavian country. Norway's long tradition of Atlantic salmon fishing, which is inseparable from the country's culture, is being threatened by their relative the humpbacks - these fish, introduced in the Russian White Sea in the 1950s, quickly became an invasive species harmful to other marine organisms. Scandinavian organizations have teamed up with technology company Huawei to develop a system to help stop the invasion of unwanted species and save Atlantic salmon.
Invasive threat
Invasive species are one of the main threats to the loss of biodiversity caused by a foreign plant, animal, microbe or other living organism entering the ecosystem purposefully or accidentally. Invasive organisms can harm local ecosystems and economies in a number of ways, such as causing disease, destroying cultivated plants, and irreversibly disrupting the natural balance. After entering the White Sea, the humpbacks reached the Norwegian coast of Finnmark, and soon the southern coast of Norway. Humpback whales, already blacklisted by the government, have become so widespread that they could wipe out Atlantic salmon and other wild fish. Humpbacks compete with native species in two ways: for food and for spawning grounds. This species is strong in competition: humpbacks eat the same food as their Atlantic relatives, are aggressive and extremely secretive.
Due to the 24-month reproduction cycle, humpbacks have increased impressively - in 2017, fishermen caught 3,528 fish of this species, in 2019 their number increased to 5,308, and in 2021 there were more than 13 thousand. As the number of salmon in a water body increases, the number of dead fish in the water body also increases, so the oxygen concentration in the water decreases, river organisms disappear and long-term changes in the local ecosystem can occur. For example, the number of carnivores and pests that feed on spawning and wasting fish is increasing, ie minks, otters, foxes, birds. In addition to increasing threats to biodiversity, invaders bring non-native diseases that threaten wild and farmed fish stocks. Escaping farmed salmon that compete with their wild relatives adds to the threat to dwindling wild fish stocks. Wild fish are genetically more diverse than farmed fish, so when they interbreed, the gene pool of the wild species weakens, and eventually the species disappears. Effective control of invasive species is essential to the conservation of Atlantic salmon.
Smart fishing solutions
Current methods for protecting Atlantic salmon stocks in Norwegian rivers are labor-intensive and mostly based on voluntary activities. Therefore, it is difficult to monitor and quantify the threat. Advances in technology have led to a new solution, a live underwater monitoring and sorting system that uses video recording and artificial intelligence technologies. This tool can help reduce manual labor by up to 90%. In July 2021, a pilot project was launched in the fishing village of Berlevåg in Norway. The first phase involved monitoring and counting various fish species, while the second phase introduced a fish sorting and sorting system that automatically prevents humpbacks from swimming upstream. The obtained data can help to reveal the exact patterns of migration behavior, register various fish species, provide detailed indicators for other studies and avoid overfishing. This pilot project is the result of a partnership between Silo AI, the largest private artificial intelligence laboratory in the Nordic countries, Berlevag JFF, a hunter and angler association that plays a vital role in protecting the local ecosystem, and technology company Huawei.
Similar monitoring technologies to detect and prevent threats to plants and wildlife have already made a difference around the world. A partnership combining technology, local expertise and advanced, tailored solutions allows for significant positive results to be expected in Norway as well.
"A river monitoring system using artificial intelligence can help prevent the invasion of unwanted species while implementing smart, future-oriented river management. We are glad that Huawei could participate in such a project, which is an example in the field of environmental protection for the Baltic countries as well," says Dans Masiliūnas, deputy head of the Huawei representative office in Lithuania.
"Since 1970, freshwater migratory fish populations have declined by an average of 76% worldwide, and by as much as 93% in Europe. Salmon, European brook eel, trout, grayling and other migratory fish are declining due to a variety of human-induced factors such as overfishing, pollution, barriers to migration routes and spawning grounds, and the impact of invasive species on aquatic ecosystems. Technologies can help in responsible management of natural resources, provide data needed to monitor the state of fish populations, life cycle and fishing, and find ways to restore biodiversity. At the moment, we are also noticing an active public interest in knowledge about the life cycles of fish in the Baltic countries," says Elza Ozoliņa, a representative of the World Wide Fund for Nature.
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