Salmon Counting · Episode 7 of 8 · 39 min
SalmonVision: Indigenous-Led AI on Ancient Weirs
The same AI revolution, but Indigenous-led and pointed at sovereignty as much as science. SalmonVision builds deep-learning computer vision directly into traditional river-spanning weirs, giving First Nations near-real-time, species-specific counts to make their own harvest decisions. The episode follows the Wild Salmon Center's work with the Heiltsuk and other British Columbia First Nations, plus the Yup'ik community of Quinhagak.
Who's who
- William HoustyHeiltsuk resource management official on title, rights and stewardship
- Will AtlasWild Salmon Center senior scientist
- Mark ClevelandPaper co-author tied to the Gitanyow Fisheries Authority
- Janvier DoirePaper co-author tied to the Skeena Fisheries Commission
Where it happens
- Koeye River, British ColumbiaHeiltsuk weir and flagship real-time deployment
- Kitwanga River, British ColumbiaGitanyow Fisheries Authority weir
- Bear River, British ColumbiaSkeena Fisheries Commission weir
- Kanektok River, AlaskaDrone salmon monitoring by the Quinhagak community
Timeline
- 2022Pilot year with cameras at the Kitwanga and Bear River weirs and a Heiltsuk pilot at Koeye.
- Summer 2023Heiltsuk Nation fully implements SalmonVision at Koeye and makes an in-season sockeye harvest decision on its count.
- October 2023Peer-reviewed results published in Frontiers in Marine Science.
- 2024SalmonVision expands across north and central British Columbia.
Still debated
The principle of Indigenous data sovereignty is clearly stated, but public materials say little about who legally owns the video and counts, or how open-source code and openly licensed training data fit with a Nation's control of its own river footage.