SeeCucumbers: Using Deep Learning and Drone Imagery to Detect Sea Cucumbers on Coral Reef Flats
Sea cucumbers (<i>Holothuroidea</i> or holothurians) are a valuable fishery and are also crucial nutrient recyclers, bioturbation agents, and hosts for many biotic associates. Their ecological impacts could be substantial given their high abundance in some reef locations and thus monitor...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2021-04-01
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| Series: | Drones |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2504-446X/5/2/28 |
| _version_ | 1827694867694747648 |
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| author | Joan Y. Q. Li Stephanie Duce Karen E. Joyce Wei Xiang |
| author_facet | Joan Y. Q. Li Stephanie Duce Karen E. Joyce Wei Xiang |
| author_sort | Joan Y. Q. Li |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Sea cucumbers (<i>Holothuroidea</i> or holothurians) are a valuable fishery and are also crucial nutrient recyclers, bioturbation agents, and hosts for many biotic associates. Their ecological impacts could be substantial given their high abundance in some reef locations and thus monitoring their populations and spatial distribution is of research interest. Traditional in situ surveys are laborious and only cover small areas but drones offer an opportunity to scale observations more broadly, especially if the holothurians can be automatically detected in drone imagery using deep learning algorithms. We adapted the object detection algorithm YOLOv3 to detect holothurians from drone imagery at Hideaway Bay, Queensland, Australia. We successfully detected 11,462 of 12,956 individuals over <inline-formula><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><mrow><mn>2.7</mn></mrow></semantics></math></inline-formula><inline-formula><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><mrow><mi mathvariant="normal">h</mi><mi mathvariant="normal">a</mi></mrow></semantics></math></inline-formula> with an average density of 0.5 individual/m<inline-formula><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><msup><mrow></mrow><mn>2</mn></msup></semantics></math></inline-formula>. We tested a range of hyperparameters to determine the optimal detector performance and achieved 0.855 mAP, 0.82 precision, 0.83 recall, and 0.82 F1 score. We found as few as ten labelled drone images was sufficient to train an acceptable detection model (0.799 mAP). Our results illustrate the potential of using small, affordable drones with direct implementation of open-source object detection models to survey holothurians and other shallow water sessile species. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-10T12:14:45Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-bd367e7bc4e349469beaf6e1dff1cd12 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2504-446X |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-10T12:14:45Z |
| publishDate | 2021-04-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Drones |
| spelling | doaj.art-bd367e7bc4e349469beaf6e1dff1cd122023-11-21T15:57:43ZengMDPI AGDrones2504-446X2021-04-01522810.3390/drones5020028SeeCucumbers: Using Deep Learning and Drone Imagery to Detect Sea Cucumbers on Coral Reef FlatsJoan Y. Q. Li0Stephanie Duce1Karen E. Joyce2Wei Xiang3College of Science and Engineering, James Cook University Townsville, Bebegu Yumba Campus, 1 James Cook Drive Douglas, Townsville, QLD 4811, AustraliaTropWATER, College of Science and Engineering, James Cook University Townsville, Bebegu Yumba Campus, 1 James Cook Drive Douglas, Townsville, QLD 4811, AustraliaTropWATER, College of Science and Engineering, James Cook University Cairns, Nguma-bada Campus, 14-88 McGregor Road Smithfield, Cairns, QLD 4878, AustraliaSchool of Engineering and Mathematics Science, La Trobe University, Melbourne, VIC 3086, AustraliaSea cucumbers (<i>Holothuroidea</i> or holothurians) are a valuable fishery and are also crucial nutrient recyclers, bioturbation agents, and hosts for many biotic associates. Their ecological impacts could be substantial given their high abundance in some reef locations and thus monitoring their populations and spatial distribution is of research interest. Traditional in situ surveys are laborious and only cover small areas but drones offer an opportunity to scale observations more broadly, especially if the holothurians can be automatically detected in drone imagery using deep learning algorithms. We adapted the object detection algorithm YOLOv3 to detect holothurians from drone imagery at Hideaway Bay, Queensland, Australia. We successfully detected 11,462 of 12,956 individuals over <inline-formula><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><mrow><mn>2.7</mn></mrow></semantics></math></inline-formula><inline-formula><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><mrow><mi mathvariant="normal">h</mi><mi mathvariant="normal">a</mi></mrow></semantics></math></inline-formula> with an average density of 0.5 individual/m<inline-formula><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><msup><mrow></mrow><mn>2</mn></msup></semantics></math></inline-formula>. We tested a range of hyperparameters to determine the optimal detector performance and achieved 0.855 mAP, 0.82 precision, 0.83 recall, and 0.82 F1 score. We found as few as ten labelled drone images was sufficient to train an acceptable detection model (0.799 mAP). Our results illustrate the potential of using small, affordable drones with direct implementation of open-source object detection models to survey holothurians and other shallow water sessile species.https://www.mdpi.com/2504-446X/5/2/28holothurianremote sensingUAVmachine learningobject detectionYOLOv3 |
| spellingShingle | Joan Y. Q. Li Stephanie Duce Karen E. Joyce Wei Xiang SeeCucumbers: Using Deep Learning and Drone Imagery to Detect Sea Cucumbers on Coral Reef Flats Drones holothurian remote sensing UAV machine learning object detection YOLOv3 |
| title | SeeCucumbers: Using Deep Learning and Drone Imagery to Detect Sea Cucumbers on Coral Reef Flats |
| title_full | SeeCucumbers: Using Deep Learning and Drone Imagery to Detect Sea Cucumbers on Coral Reef Flats |
| title_fullStr | SeeCucumbers: Using Deep Learning and Drone Imagery to Detect Sea Cucumbers on Coral Reef Flats |
| title_full_unstemmed | SeeCucumbers: Using Deep Learning and Drone Imagery to Detect Sea Cucumbers on Coral Reef Flats |
| title_short | SeeCucumbers: Using Deep Learning and Drone Imagery to Detect Sea Cucumbers on Coral Reef Flats |
| title_sort | seecucumbers using deep learning and drone imagery to detect sea cucumbers on coral reef flats |
| topic | holothurian remote sensing UAV machine learning object detection YOLOv3 |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2504-446X/5/2/28 |
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