The Innovation Award

17 March 2021

This award recognises the individual, company or group that has this year publicly introduced innovative measures for reducing stress on the oceans or for improving ocean health; such measures might include business operations which are not undertaken at the expense of the marine environment or development of promising new technologies that benefit the marine environment.

Criteria: Nominees for this award must have undertaken activities or commitments to significantly develop or implement products, services, processes, or measures that have – or are likely to have – a positive impact on the health of the marine environment.

The finalists are:

CSIRO – Dr Chris Wilcox and the Monitoring Control & Surveillance Analytics Team at CSIRO Oceans & Atmosphere
Aqualink – Smart Buoy
Element Hope – Turtle Tower

CSIRO – Dr Chris Wilcox and the Monitoring Control & Surveillance Analytics Team at CSIRO Oceans & Atmosphere

(L) Detecting ‘dark’ vessels using radar (R) Using hydrophones to manage and pinpoint marine activity

Detecting ‘dark’ vessels using radar

Existing observation systems able to detect ‘dark’ vessels at sea are often prohibitively expensive, especially for developing countries with large marine estates and many small vessels not equipped with tracking technologies like Automatic Identification Systems (AIS). CSIRO developed a technique to provide low-cost data on vessel activities using ships' existing navigation radar systems, essentially using a ship as a sensor platform. AIS, VMS and satellite data are alternatives, but they are still expensive or essentially voluntary. Vessel tracking systems have limitations where not all vessels are covered, which is the case in areas like Australia, or where only about 60% of a fishing fleet uses AIS.

Using hydrophones to manage and pinpoint marine activity

Managing human impacts in the ocean requires inexpensive, widely available and real-time surveillance information. Underwater sound can meet these criteria, allowing managers to tackle issues from fishing with explosives to poaching in marine reserves. While the hardware to record this sound is readily available, two key barriers prevent its widespread use: automated high-quality processing of sound data and reliable inexpensive communication of information.

To address these surveillance needs at an accessible cost, CSIRO took an off-the-shelf hydrophone and married it to a custom buoyancy engine and a satellite communications unit they designed and built over the last 18 months. This allows the hydrophone to sit underwater, detect sounds, and briefly surface to send alerts.

Aqualink – Smart Buoy

Aqualink aims to build a better ocean database that enables scientists to protect and restore the world’s coral reefs. They are doing this by deploying a global ocean monitoring system that streams data live and provides a platform for local reef managers to connect with experts around the world. The smart monitoring solution will be provided for free to anyone who would like to help understand and protect their local marine ecosystem.

Element Hope – Turtle Tower

Sea turtles are a fundamental component within marine ecosystems. They help maintain the health of seagrass beds and coral reefs that benefit commercially valuable species such as shrimp, lobster, and tuna. Six of seven sea turtle species are listed as threatened or endangered. In collaboration with conservation organizations, Element Hope has created a Turtle Nest Device (patent pending) with the aim to increase population numbers and survival rates.

Return to the finalist page here.