The two uncrewed marine vessels, known as Bluebottles, will capture real-time activity in waters off Jurien Bay and Two Rocks in a 30-day trial conducted by Parks Australia. The 22-foot vessels look similar to a small yacht, but their purpose will focus on the protection and surveillance of WA's coastline. Federal Minister for Environment and Water Tanya Plibersek said the trial would be used to target illegal fishing activity.

Charles River Analytics to Provide Artificial Intelligence and Computer Vision Technologies to Enhance Wildlife Protections (NEW BEDFORD, MA) – Vineyard Wind and Charles River Analytics announced a new collaboration today aimed at further protecting marine mammals during the construction of the Vineyard Wind 1 project. As part of the effort, Vineyard Wind will employ Awarion™ technology for marine mammal, ship, and fishing gear detection. The technology is being provided by Charles River Analytics, a Cambridge, Massachusetts-based research and development firm.

Following a successful proof of concept, Charles River Analytics was awarded more than $1.1 million by the US Navy to apply computer vision and autonomous robotics capabilities to navigation over the open ocean. Images of the ocean can be captured by sensors on uncrewed aircraft systems (UASs), which also record data about position, orientation, and field of view. But it is not easy to match the images and data to exact locations and create accurate maps. Unlike ground terrain, the ocean surface lacks reliable landmarks. GPS data is not always available.