AI-equipped drones study dolphins on the edge of extinction

人工智能无人机助力研究濒临灭绝的海豚

Small in size and with distinctive, rounded dorsal fin, Māui dolphins are one of the rarest and most threatened dolphins in the sea, with a known population of just 54. Decades of fishing practices, such as gillnetting off the west coast of New Zealand in the South Pacific have pushed this sub-species to near extinction. 毛伊海豚（Māui dolphins）体型娇小，背鳍呈独特的圆形，是海洋中最稀有、最受威胁的海豚之一，目前已知的种群数量仅剩 54 只。几十年来，南太平洋新西兰西海岸的刺网捕捞等渔业活动，已将这一亚种推向了灭绝的边缘。

Now scientists and conservationists are using a combination of drones, AI and cloud technologies to learn more about these rare marine mammals. They say the solution can also be applied to study other species fighting for survival in the world’s oceans. The effort is part of a growing trend toward using AI and other technologies to more effectively collect and analyze data for environmental conservation. 如今，科学家和环保人士正结合无人机、人工智能和云技术，深入了解这些珍稀海洋哺乳动物。他们表示，这一解决方案同样适用于研究全球海洋中其他正在为生存而挣扎的物种。此举顺应了日益增长的趋势，即利用人工智能和其他技术更有效地收集和分析数据，以助力环境保护。

For example, Microsoft AI for Earth’s partner, Conservation Metrics, combines machine learning, remote sensing and scientific expertise to increase the scale and effectiveness of wildlife surveys. NatureServe, another partner organization, leverages Esri ArcGIS tools and Microsoft cloud computing to generate high-resolution habitat maps for imperiled species. 例如，微软“地球人工智能”（AI for Earth）项目的合作伙伴 Conservation Metrics，通过结合机器学习、遥感技术和科学专业知识，提高了野生动物调查的规模和效率。另一家合作组织 NatureServe 则利用 Esri ArcGIS 工具和微软云计算，为濒危物种生成高分辨率的栖息地地图。

The scientists and conservationists with the not-for-profit group MAUI63 are using AI and other tools to support the conservation of the Māui dolphins, named after the Polynesian demigod, Māui. 非营利组织 MAUI63 的科学家和环保人士正利用人工智能及其他工具，支持毛伊海豚的保护工作。这种海豚是以波利尼西亚半神“毛伊”（Māui）的名字命名的。

Māui dolphins play an important part of the ecological and spiritual fabric of Aotearoa — the Māori name for New Zealand. They inhabit the waters off the west coast of the country’s North Island — also known as Te Ika-a-Māui, which translates to “the Fish of Māui.” 毛伊海豚在新西兰（毛利语称为 Aotearoa）的生态和精神结构中扮演着重要角色。它们栖息在新西兰北岛西海岸的水域，该岛也被称为“Te Ika-a-Māui”，意为“毛伊之鱼”。

Weighing 50 kilograms and measuring up to 1.7 meters when fully grown, Māui dolphins are one of the smallest members of the marine dolphin family and among the most elusive. They have white, grey and black markings and black rounded dorsal fins. Unlike human facial features, the markings don’t vary between animals, meaning individuals can’t be identified with the naked eye. 成年毛伊海豚体重 50 公斤，体长可达 1.7 米，是海洋海豚家族中体型最小、也最难以捉摸的成员之一。它们身上有白色、灰色和黑色的斑纹，并长有黑色的圆形背鳍。与人类的面部特征不同，这些斑纹在不同个体之间没有差异，这意味着仅凭肉眼无法识别出具体的个体。

Conventional ways of monitoring and studying these fast-moving animals at sea have proved problematic and costly. Researchers admit relatively little is known about their behavior, particularly in winter when weather conditions deteriorate. Now, MAUI63 believes it has a solution: an AI-powered drone that can efficiently find, track and identify dolphins. 在海上监测和研究这些快速移动的动物，传统方法既困难又昂贵。研究人员承认，人们对它们的行为知之甚少，尤其是在天气恶劣的冬季。现在，MAUI63 认为他们找到了解决方案：一种能够高效发现、追踪和识别海豚的人工智能无人机。

The aim of their work, according to co-founder and marine biologist, Professor Rochelle Constantine, is to “give certainty to our uncertainty.” “Currently everything we know about them is from summer. We know virtually nothing about them in winter,” she says. 该组织的联合创始人、海洋生物学家 Rochelle Constantine 教授表示，他们的工作目标是“为我们的不确定性提供确定性”。她说：“目前我们对它们的所有了解都来自夏季。而在冬季，我们对它们几乎一无所知。”

Constantine, together with technology and innovation specialist Tane van der Boon and drone enthusiast Willy Wang, formed MAUI63 in 2018. At the time, the Māui dolphin population was estimated at 63 individuals. That figure has since dropped to 54. Constantine 与技术创新专家 Tane van der Boon 以及无人机爱好者 Willy Wang 于 2018 年共同创立了 MAUI63。当时，毛伊海豚的种群数量估计为 63 只。自那以后，这一数字已降至 54 只。

Over drinks at a pub, Van der Boon, who is the group’s CEO, and Wang came up with the idea of leveraging drones, machine learning and cloud computing to study the dolphins. “I was getting interested in computer learning — I really saw how teaching computers to see is quite an amazing thing. All the things that we could start to solve and do really intrigued me,” he says. 在酒吧小酌时，担任该组织首席执行官的 Van der Boon 和 Wang 萌生了利用无人机、机器学习和云计算来研究海豚的想法。他说：“我当时对计算机学习产生了兴趣——我真正看到了教计算机‘看’东西是一件多么神奇的事情。我们能够着手解决和完成的所有事情都让我非常着迷。”

The Māui dolphins’ rounded fins differ from the more pointed-shaped fins of other dolphins. That meant existing computer vision models were not fit for identifying Māui dolphins. So, van der Boon spent “a couple of months of nights and weekends” teaching himself how to build a model. He then painstakingly tagged Māui dolphin images from internet footage to train it to identify them. 毛伊海豚的圆形背鳍与其他海豚更尖的背鳍不同。这意味着现有的计算机视觉模型并不适合识别毛伊海豚。因此，van der Boon 花了“几个月的夜晚和周末”自学如何构建模型。随后，他费尽心思地从互联网视频中标记毛伊海豚的图像，以训练模型进行识别。

It was the first challenge of many. Four years of development, testing and fundraising followed. The team also had to gain specialist qualifications to fly their 4.5 meter-wingspan drone out to sea. They spotted their first Māui dolphins earlier this year. “It was pretty exciting. We were sitting in the van, the drone was 16 kilometers down the coast, and we could see the AI detecting dolphins as we were doing circles around them,” van der Boon says. 这只是众多挑战中的第一个。随后的四年里，团队进行了开发、测试和筹款。他们还必须获得专业资格，才能将翼展 4.5 米的无人机飞往海上。今年早些时候，他们发现了第一批毛伊海豚。van der Boon 说：“这非常令人兴奋。我们坐在货车里，无人机在 16 公里外的海岸线上飞行，当我们绕着海豚盘旋时，我们可以看到人工智能正在探测它们。”

Development has been helped along by funding under New Zealand’s Cloud and AI Country plan, which includes funding for projects with sustainable societal impact, as well as support from Microsoft Philanthropies ANZ. 该项目的开发得到了新西兰“云与人工智能国家计划”（Cloud and AI Country plan）的资助，该计划旨在支持具有可持续社会影响的项目，同时也得到了微软澳大利亚及新西兰慈善机构（Microsoft Philanthropies ANZ）的支持。

The solution combines an 8K ultra high-definition still camera and a full HD gimbal camera with an object detection model for spotting dolphins, and an open-source algorithm originally developed for facial recognition. Hosted on Microsoft Azure, it gathers data that will be used to identify individual animals by the shape and size of their dorsal fins and any scratches and marks on them. 该解决方案结合了 8K 超高清静态相机、全高清云台相机、用于探测海豚的目标检测模型，以及最初为面部识别开发的开源算法。该系统托管在 Microsoft Azure 上，所收集的数据将用于通过海豚背鳍的形状、大小以及身上的划痕和标记来识别个体。

MAUI63 is also developing an app called Sea Spotter, funded by Microsoft, which uses Azure Functions to allow people to upload photos of Māui sightings and use an AI algorithm to learn which individual they saw. MAUI63 还在开发一款名为 Sea Spotter 的应用程序，该项目由微软资助。它利用 Azure Functions 功能，允许人们上传毛伊海豚的目击照片，并使用人工智能算法来识别他们看到的是哪一只海豚。

Being able to pinpoint the Māui dolphin’s habitat is crucial for understanding how to protect them against threats, according to the conservationists. Constantine says the risk of Māui dolphins being caught as bycatch in the nets of fishing boats is now “extremely low” thanks to a marine sanctuary that was put in place around their known habitat in 2008 and expanded in 2020. 环保人士认为，能够精确定位毛伊海豚的栖息地，对于了解如何保护它们免受威胁至关重要。Constantine 表示，由于 2008 年在其已知栖息地周围建立了海洋保护区，并于 2020 年进行了扩建，毛伊海豚被渔船网具误捕的风险现在已经“极低”。

Nonetheless, they may stray outside these protected areas. That is why MAUI63 is working on an integration project with fishing companies to ultimately notify their crews of sightings made by the drone in real time. 尽管如此，它们仍可能游出这些保护区。这就是为什么 MAUI63 正在与渔业公司合作开展一个整合项目，旨在最终实现将无人机发现的海豚行踪实时通知给船员。