Research Paper:
Automatic Detection and Distribution Mapping of Epibenthos from Seabed Images
Koichiro Enomoto*1,
, Naohiro Maruo*2, Koji Miyoshi*3
, Yasuhiro Kuwahara*4, and Masashi Toda*5

*1Regional ICT Research Center of Human, Industry and Future, The University of Shiga Prefecture
2500 Hassaka-cho, Hikone-shi, Shiga 522-8533, Japan
Corresponding author
*2The University of Shiga Prefecture
Hikone, Japan
*3Fisheries Research Department, Central Fisheries Research Institute, Hokkaido Research Organization
Yoichi, Japan
*4Fisheries Research Department, Mariculture Fisheries Research Institute, Hokkaido Research Organization
Muroran, Japan
*5Kumamoto University
Kumamoto, Japan
The efficient investigation of fishery resources is critical for rapidly understanding the effects of abrupt environmental changes. Seabed imagery has been used extensively for resource assessment in scallop fisheries in the Sea of Okhotsk, Hokkaido, Japan. However, the potential of these images for the broader investigation of epibenthos remains unclear. In this paper, we propose an automatic detection method for epibenthos from seabed images using deep learning, specifically Mask R-CNN and Mask2Former models. We focus on four species: Asterias amurensis, Distolasterias nipon, Halocynthia aurantium, and Patiria pectinifera. The Mask R-CNN X101-FPN 3x model show the highest overall accuracy, with a mask mAP of 77.8%, whereas Mask2Former excelled in specific species detection. The trained models are successfully used to generate epibenthic distribution maps, demonstrating the effectiveness of the proposed method for monitoring large-scale marine ecosystems. This approach significantly enhances our ability to conduct comprehensive assessments of benthic communities, thereby providing an effective tool for marine-biodiversity assessment and fishery resource management.
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