AI to help fight invasive fish in Norway

The long-running war with humpback salmon in northern rivers is getting a high-tech upgrade.

Artificial intelligence will help fight the invasion of so-called pink (humpback) salmon in three rivers in the county of Finnmark in northern Norway this summer, NRK reports. Smart underwater systems are being developed to kill unwanted fish species. The pink salmon returns to Norwegian rivers every two years to spawn. Originally from the Pacific, the fish is now considered invasive since it was introduced into rivers on the neighbouring Russian Kola Peninsula in the 1950s. “We have declared a war on this invasive species,” Norway’s then Minister of Climate and Environment Espen Barth Eide told the Barents Observer in June 2023.

For example, while the pink salmon, or 'gorbusha', is a valuable resource in Russia, many Norwegian fishermen consider it a threat. The fish return in huge numbers and die after spawning in the local rivers. As a result, thousands of rotting fish end up polluting the rivers, experts told the Barents Observer. While in previous years the measures to stop the pink salmon from migrating along the rivers were limited to the construction of metal traps, this time, there will be special detection cameras. The NRK explains that the image recognition system would allow desirable fish such as Atlantic salmon, sea trout and sea char to pass, while catching and killing unwanted humpback salmon.

“For the past two years we have been developing automatic sorting systems based on image recognition and artificial intelligence”, Eirik Frøiland, fisheries manager with the county governor of Troms and Finnmark, is quoted as saying by NRK. The AI system, developed by Norwegian company Mohn Technology, will be tested this summer, for example, on the Jakobselva River in Vestre Jakobselv. NRK underlines, that in summer 2023 a total of 249,496 humpback salmon were caught in traps, according to the Norwegian Environment Agency.