scholarly journals Detection of Visual Signatures of Marine Mammals and Fish within Marine Renewable Energy Farms using Multibeam Imaging Sonar

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francisco Francisco ◽  
Jan Sundberg
Keyword(s):  
Renewable Energy ◽  
Marine Mammals ◽  
Environmental Data ◽  
Marine Renewable Energy ◽  
Marine Energy ◽  
Acoustic Images ◽  
Sonar Systems ◽  
Sonar Images ◽  
Imaging Sonar

Techniques for marine monitoring have been greatly evolved over the past decades, making the acquisition of environmental data safer, more reliable and more efficient. On the other hand, the marine renewable energy sector has introduced dissimilar ways of exploring the oceans. Marine energy is mostly harvested in murky and high energetic places where conventional data acquisition techniques are impractical. This new frontier on marine operations brings the need for finding new techniques for environmental data acquisition, processing and analysis. Modern sonar systems, operating at high frequencies, can acquire detailed images of the underwater environment. Variables such as occurrence, size, class and behavior of a variety of aquatic species of fish, birds, and mammals that coexist within marine energy sites can be monitored using imaging sonar systems. Although sonar images can provide high levels of detail, in most of the cases they are still difficult to decipher. In order to facilitate the classification of targets using sonar images, this study introduces a framework of extracting visual features of marine animals that would serve as unique signatures. The acoustic visibility measure (AVM) is here introduced as technique of identification and classification of targets by comparing the observed size with a standard value. This information can be used to instruct algorithms and protocols in order to automate the identification and classification of underwater targets using imaging sonar systems. Using image processing algorithms embedded in Proviwer4 and FIJI software, this study found that acoustic images can be effectively used to classify cod, harbour and grey seals, and orcas through their size, shape and swimming behavior. The sonar images showed that cod occurred as bright, 0.9 m long, ellipsoidal targets shoaling in groups. Harbour seals occurred as bright torpedo-like fast moving targets, whereas grey seals occurred as bulky-ellipsoidal targets with serpentine movements. Orca or larger marine mammals occurred with relatively low visibility on the acoustic images compared to their body size, which measured between 4 m and 7 m. This framework provide a new window of performing qualitative and quantitative observations of underwater targets, and with further improvements, this method can be useful for environmental studies within marine renewable energy farms and for other purposes.

scholarly journals A Decision Support Tool for Long-Term Planning of Marine Operations in Ocean Energy Projects

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (8) ◽  
pp. 810
Author(s):  
Francisco X. Correia da Fonseca ◽  
Luís Amaral ◽  
Paulo Chainho
Keyword(s):  
Renewable Energy ◽  
Decision Support ◽  
Decision Support Tool ◽  
Ocean Energy ◽  
Support Tool ◽  
Marine Renewable Energy ◽  
Marine Energy ◽  
Energy Projects ◽  
Selection Algorithms ◽  
Maritime Infrastructure

Ocean energy is a relevant source of clean renewable energy, and as it is still facing challenges related to its above grid-parity costs, tariffs intended to support in a structured and coherent way are of great relevance and potential impact. The logistics and marine operations required for installing and maintaining these systems are major cost drivers of marine renewable energy projects. Planning the logistics of marine energy projects is a highly complex and intertwined process, and to date, limited advances have been made in the development of decision support tools suitable for ocean energy farm design. The present paper describes the methodology of a novel, opensource, logistic and marine operation planning tool, integrated within DTOceanPlus suite of design tools, and responsible for producing logistic solutions comprised of optimal selections of vessels, port terminals, equipment, as well as operation plans, for ocean energy projects. Infrastructure selection logistic functions were developed to select vessels, ports, and equipment for specific projects. A statistical weather window model was developed to estimate operation delays due to weather. A vessel charter rate modeling approach, based on an in-house vessel database and industry experience, is described in detail. The overall operation assumptions and underlying operating principles of the statistical weather window model, maritime infrastructure selection algorithms, and cost modeling strategies are presented. Tests performed for a case study based a theoretical floating wave energy converter produced results in good agreement with reality.

scholarly journals The Permitting, Licensing and Environmental Compliance Process: Lessons and Experiences within U.S. Marine Renewable Energy

Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (16) ◽  
pp. 5048
Author(s):  
Zachary Barr ◽  
Jesse Roberts ◽  
William Peplinski ◽  
Anna West ◽  
Sharon Kramer ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Renewable Energy ◽  
Clean Energy ◽  
Vital Role ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Marine Renewable Energy ◽  
Marine Energy ◽  
Efficiency And Effectiveness ◽  
Practical Experiences ◽  
Permitting Process ◽  
The U.S

The marine renewable energy (MRE; renewable energy captured from waves, tides, ocean currents, the natural flow of water in rivers, and marine thermal gradients, without building new dams or diversions) industry has a vital role in the U.S. clean energy strategy as we progress to meet U.S. electricity and blue economy needs with renewable, domestic energy sources. However, a thorough assessment of the U.S. marine energy permitting process from the viewpoints of both developers that propose projects and regulators that permit them has not been performed. Sharing practical experiences in this new industry is vital to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the permitting process, identify data and information gaps, develop lessons learned, and advance the industry. This paper is a case study of qualitative findings, lessons learned, and recommendations from guided discussions, workshops, and webinars with both marine renewable energy developers and state and federal regulators that have experience in the permitting process in the U.S.

scholarly journals Applying Two Active Acoustic Technologies to Document Presence of Large Marine Animal Targets at a Marine Renewable Energy Site

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (9) ◽  
pp. 704
Author(s):  
Garrett Staines ◽  
Gayle Barbin Zydlewski ◽  
Haley A. Viehman ◽  
Rachel Kocik
Keyword(s):  
Renewable Energy ◽  
Marine Mammals ◽  
Marine Animal ◽  
Anthropogenic Pressures ◽  
Marine Renewable Energy ◽  
Area Of Interest ◽  
Tidal Turbine ◽  
Device Deployment ◽  
Acoustic Technologies ◽  
Passive Acoustic

Coastal regions are highly used by humans. The growing marine renewable energy (MRE) industry will add to existing anthropogenic pressures in these regions. Regulatory bodies require animal risk assessment before new industrial activities can progress, and MRE is no exception. Preliminary data of marine mammal use of an MRE device deployment location could be informative to permitting. A combination of downlooking hydroacoustics using an echosounder and acoustic camera (imaging sonar) was used to provide a number of large targets (proxy for large fish and marine mammals) in an area of interest for MRE tidal turbine deployment in Western Passage, Maine, USA. Data were collected in May, June, August, and September of 2010 and 2011. Of the nine large targets confirmed to be animals, eight were porpoises and one was a shark. Few large targets were observed in May and June, with the majority (90%) being present in August and September of both years. The most large targets were observed when tidal current speed was less than 1 m·s−1. These data provide a preliminary assessment of large targets in a single location over sixteen 24-h surveys. The aforementioned methodology could be used for future pre- and post-installation assessments at MRE device deployment locations. Their use in concert with visual and passive acoustic monitoring can provide water depth usage by marine mammals, which is a metric that is difficult to assess with passive acoustic and visual techniques.

scholarly journals Fish Segmentation in Sonar Images by Mask R-CNN on Feature Maps of Conditional Random Fields

Sensors ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (22) ◽  
pp. 7625
Author(s):  
Chin-Chun Chang ◽  
Yen-Po Wang ◽  
Shyi-Chyi Cheng
Keyword(s):  
Random Fields ◽  
Conditional Random Fields ◽  
Semantic Segmentation ◽  
Fish Behavior ◽  
Fish Farm ◽  
Fish Farms ◽  
Feature Maps ◽  
Sonar Systems ◽  
Sonar Images ◽  
Imaging Sonar

Imaging sonar systems are widely used for monitoring fish behavior in turbid or low ambient light waters. For analyzing fish behavior in sonar images, fish segmentation is often required. In this paper, Mask R-CNN is adopted for segmenting fish in sonar images. Sonar images acquired from different shallow waters can be quite different in the contrast between fish and the background. That difference can make Mask R-CNN trained on examples collected from one fish farm ineffective to fish segmentation for the other fish farms. In this paper, a preprocessing convolutional neural network (PreCNN) is proposed to provide “standardized” feature maps for Mask R-CNN and to ease applying Mask R-CNN trained for one fish farm to the others. PreCNN aims at decoupling learning of fish instances from learning of fish-cultured environments. PreCNN is a semantic segmentation network and integrated with conditional random fields. PreCNN can utilize successive sonar images and can be trained by semi-supervised learning to make use of unlabeled information. Experimental results have shown that Mask R-CNN on the output of PreCNN is more accurate than Mask R-CNN directly on sonar images. Applying Mask R-CNN plus PreCNN trained for one fish farm to new fish farms is also more effective.

scholarly journals (Re-)Introducing the IMEJ

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. i
Author(s):  
AbuBakr S. Bahaj
Keyword(s):  
Renewable Energy ◽  
Marine Renewable Energy ◽  
Marine Energy ◽  
Energy Community

Two years ago we launched the International Marine Energy Journal (IMEJ) in response to requests and encouragement from the marine renewable energy community to create a journal dedicated to our field of research. Four issues later and I can say that this has been a rewarding and challenging process.

Durability of Polymers and Composites: The Key to Reliable Marine Renewable Energy Production

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Davies ◽  
Pierre-Yves Le Gac ◽  
Maelenn Le Gall ◽  
Mael Arhant ◽  
Corentin Humeau
Keyword(s):  
Renewable Energy ◽  
Turbine Blades ◽  
Fatigue Tests ◽  
Synthetic Fiber ◽  
Marine Renewable Energy ◽  
Tidal Turbines ◽  
Marine Energy ◽  
Influence Of Water ◽  
Tidal Turbine ◽  
Significant Cost Reduction

Recovery of marine energy is progressing from the prototype stage to arrays, and all of the systems currently being developed include critical elements manufactured from polymers and composites. Structural MRE (Marine Renewable Energy) components range from composite turbine blades, for floating wind and tidal turbines, to polymer fiber ropes for wave, tidal and floating wind mooring systems. Elastomeric components are also widely used for sealing and protection. In all cases it is essential to understand how seawater diffuses into these polymers and how it affects mechanical properties; this allows appropriate safety factors to be applied without excessive over-conservative design, and can result in significant cost reduction. This paper will present a methodology for evaluating the long term behavior of such components based on accelerated testing. Three examples will be shown to illustrate the approach; tidal turbine blade composites, synthetic fiber rope moorings, and rubber components. In each case the seawater diffusion kinetics will be described first, then the influence of water on mechanical behavior will be quantified for the particular loadings of interest, and finally results from fully coupled fatigue tests in seawater will be discussed.

Monitor the Impact of Marine Renewable Energy Devices on Local Environment

2013 ◽  
Vol 448-453 ◽  
pp. 1620-1623
Author(s):  
Jia Liu ◽  
Feng Xu ◽  
Xu Dong An ◽  
Qiao Zhang ◽  
Juan Yang
Keyword(s):  
Renewable Energy ◽  
Local Environment ◽  
Global Scale ◽  
Energy Device ◽  
Energy Devices ◽  
Marine Renewable Energy ◽  
Underwater Environment ◽  
Marine Energy ◽  
Development And Utilization ◽  
The Impact

The development and utilization of clean and renewable marine energy sources will be a way for the development of economy. Although on a global scale the advantages of renewable energy are not in doubt, the impacts on the local environment must be carefully considered. The sonar devices could be used to monitor the underwater environment around the marine renewable energy device. In this paper, a Multi-beam Echo Sounder is introduced. And the measured results in a lake are given, which are shown that this sonar could detection the fish effectively.

ASSESSMENT OF MARINE RENEWABLE ENERGY INDUSTRY STAKEHOLDER REQUIREMENTS IN NORTH SCOTLAND

2010 ◽  
Vol 12 (01) ◽  
pp. 29-49 ◽  
Author(s):  
ALASTOR COLEBY
Keyword(s):  
Renewable Energy ◽  
Spatial Planning ◽  
Local Economy ◽  
Environmental Data ◽  
Energy Industry ◽  
North Coast ◽  
Marine Spatial Planning ◽  
Tidal Power ◽  
Marine Renewable Energy ◽  
Renewable Energy Industry

This paper describes two marine renewable energy stakeholder workshops in North Scotland that were held in March 2009 to discuss industry requirements for developing the Pentland Firth and Orkney waters between Scotland's north coast and the northern isles. This is an area of considerable interest for the development of renewable energy in Scotland. If the area is developed (mainly with wave and tidal power) it could make a significant contribution to both meeting government renewable energy targets and to the local economy. However, following accelerated applications by developers for site leasing, development of the area was delayed by uncertainty in environmental data shortages and subsequent slow progress in government formulation of marine spatial planning policy. In order to proceed, the marine renewable energy industry in Scotland required timely investment in regional infrastructure and a clear policy direction from government. Energy industry stakeholders who attended the workshops called for a single authority to take responsibility for both regulation and direct investment from government so that national renewable energy targets could be met in the required timeframe. Ultimately, government and policy makers were expected by industry to take responsibility for this with a central authority to decide and importantly communicate where and when marine turbines could be built. This required by government a proper understanding of the resources and not just the constraints in identifying the most suitable areas. Local knowledge in the community offered to dispel some of the uncertainty regarding the physical environment in a way that could also guide policy and perhaps accelerate marine spatial planning in designating workable areas for wave and tidal power.

scholarly journals Recent work and prospective analysis on offshore structures and marine energy harvesting at the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto

2021 ◽  
Vol 1201 (1) ◽  
pp. 012043
Author(s):  
F Taveira-Pinto ◽  
P Rosa-Santos ◽  
T. Fazeres-Ferradosa
Keyword(s):  
Renewable Energy ◽  
Energy Harvesting ◽  
Offshore Structures ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Marine Renewable Energy ◽  
The Past ◽  
Energy Group ◽  
Marine Energy ◽  
The University ◽  
Offshore Oil

Abstract Marine energy harvesting and offshore structures for marine renewable energy exploitation rise as a trending topic of both research and industrial activities. However, many challenges are yet to be tackled and solved when it comes to place such equipment and structures at sea. Over the past years the Marine Energy Group at FEUP has been tackling some of those challenges aiming at a better competitiveness of marine renewable energy in comparison to traditional oil & gas sector, which is more mature and developed at this point in time. Additionally, recent findings of this research team have also been applicable to several offshore oil & gas infrastructures. In this work, the latest contributions, projects and research outcomes developed by the team are reviewed and presented towards the enhancement of future research lines and industrial opportunities.

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