Fisheries Innovation Scotland

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Smartrawl, an innovative AI-powered fishing net designed to reduce marine bycatch, was developed by Professor Paul Fernandes of the Lyell Centre in partnership with Fisheries Innovation & Sustainability (FIS) and supported by funding from the UK Seafood Innovation Fund.

Globally, an estimated four million tonnes of bycatch are caught each year. The technology aims to minimise the unintentional capture of non-target species by trawl fisheries, including sharks, rays, dolphins, seabirds and critically endangered turtles.

Smartrawl acts as an in-water sorting system, using a combination of stereo cameras, artificial intelligence and an automated release gate. Stereo cameras capture images of fish and other marine animals entering the trawl, while an onboard AI system identifies species and estimates their size in real time. Based on this information, the system controls a gate that retains commercially valuable fish while allowing unwanted or vulnerable species to escape safely.