On July 11, the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) and the National Security Innovation Network (NSIN) announce winners of a $1 million, six-month grand challenge to identify novel ways to forecast industrial fishing.
First place ($500,000): Athenium Analytics. Leverages AI-enabled imagery analytics, predictive models and proprietary risk scores to identify and manage risk (athenium.com).
Second place ($200,000): Sync Layer, Inc. Uses data visualization technology to provide comprehensive analysis of large volumes of data (syncarena.com).
Third place ($50,000): Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence. Created by the late Paul G. Allen, cofounder of Microsoft, the Allen Institute specializes in AI research and development in multiple sectors, including maritime (allenai.org).
The competition challenged nonfederal innovators to develop a concept of operations and demonstrate forecasting capability, with the goal of using the industrial fishing forecasts to complement NGA efforts to systematically detect, track and characterize maritime vessels engaged in illegal, unreported or unregulated fishing. IUU fishing is a key contributor to the decline and potential collapse of fisheries, threatening the stability of economies, food systems and ecosystems regionally and worldwide.
“We saw some promising CONOPS and forecasts in the challenge. The challenge winners’ forecasts outperformed the historical Global Fishing Watch baseline by up to 25%,” said Mike Brady, PhD, NGA research scientist and program manager for the grand challenge. “With regular feedback and refinements, these forecasts could be beneficial for operational uses in the future.”
The judging panel included representatives from NGA, NSIN, U.S. Navy, U.S. Coast Guard and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The panel judged both the CONOPS and demonstrated ability to forecast industrial fishing during eight rounds of daily and weekly fishing forecasts, scored against observed fishing activity published by the Global Fishing Watch.
The Global Fishing Forecast Grand Challenge is part of NGA’s larger focus on using commercial techniques and unclassified sources to enhance maritime domain awareness, including IUU fishing. NGA monitors, tracks and forecasts maritime activities to help the agency’s customers, partners and allies combat illicit maritime activities. The commercial innovation championed through the challenge brought new insights into promising approaches for providing anticipatory GEOINT, and that knowledge will inform future acquisitions.
Source: NGA
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By Loren Blinde
July 12, 2024
