GGGI Small Grant (2022) - Stichting Ghost Diving (Greece)

EuropeUAV SurveysGear RemovalOutreach and EducationData Collection

Dec. 31

Project Summary

Stichting Ghost Diving is implementing a project dedicated to locating ALDFG in Mediterranean waters using unoccupied aerial vehicles (UAVs) in near-shore coastal environments. Through the course of this project, Stichting Ghost Diving is working with fellow GGGI member Wolf Fish Ltd. to perform aerial surveys using UAVs to gather information about the distribution of ALDFG along specific areas of the Greek coastline. Survey flights in areas of regional interest will return results about the type, location, and density of ALDFG, and about ALDFG impact across large regions of the coast.

Information gained during the surveys will be used to:

locate ALDFG for removal
study the impact of local fishing practices
facilitate knowledge transfer between stakeholders and drone operators and the local fishing community and
share ALDFG data from aerial surveys to the GGGI Ghost Gear Reporter App.

The experienced divers with the Stichting Ghost Diving team will also perform underwater surveys of ALDFG identified in the aerial surveys and remove the gear if safe to do so. All data from the project will be contributed to the GGGI data portal, and ALDFG imagery will be used to further train the GGGI’s artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm that is being developed to automatically detect ALDFG from aerial images.