In order to prevent poaching of sea cucumbers, a demonstration experiment was conducted at night at a fishing port in Mutsu City, Aomori Prefecture, to confirm whether monitoring was possible using a drone equipped with an infrared camera.
In Mutsu City, the damage caused by poaching sea cucumbers and abalone is endless, so local fishermen's cooperatives have been using drones since May in collaboration with the Japan Drone Utilization Promotion Organization, which has its headquarters in Aomori City. We are conducting a demonstration experiment to monitor poaching.
According to the fishery cooperative, most of the poaching is done at night, so on the 26th, the first nighttime demonstration experiment was held at the fishing port in Kawauchi Town, Mutsu City, and about 20 people including the people involved in the fishery cooperative and the city staff participated. Did.
The drone's body was equipped with an infrared camera, and in the experiment, we were able to capture the fishery cooperative's ship, which was likened to a poaching ship sailing in the dark, and check the image on a monitor installed on the ground.
In the future, demonstration experiments will be conducted on drones that have a waterproof function that can fly even in the rain or snow, and fisheries cooperatives and others are planning to start monitoring activities for poaching by drones by the end of FY2023.
"It's a camera with good performance, so if you get used to the operation, you'll get a clearer image. I'd like to repeat the experiment and spread the use of the drone to the whole country," said the head of the Kawauchi Fishery Cooperative. I was talking.