CTinnovatorIDs illegal trawlers with AI and ears in the ocean

Aug. 14—Closer to home in partnership with Hydrotechnik-Luebeck based in Germany, ThayerMahan is assisting offshore wind developers with a system to "bubble wrap" wind turbine monopiles with curtains of sound-absorbing bubbles, in an effort to minimize disruptions for whales and other marine life. ThayerMahan is tracking whale positions to determine if any are swimming too close to turbine construction sites and is helping wind farm developers comply with federal environmental rules.

Mike Connor retired as a vice admiral overseeing the U.S. Navy's submarine fleet to start ThayerMahan in 2016, seeing the need for a startup that could develop a networked system of underwater sensors to help the Navy identify vessels. Connor named the company for the naval power theorist Alfred Thayer Mahan, who was a major influence in the global naval buildup preceding World War I.

"We didn't set out to serve the wind energy industry — we set out to serve the U.S. government," said Connor, who is the founder and chief executive officer of the fast growing company, which has doubled in size since the spring of 2022

"We looked at these emerging technologies — low-power electronics, cloud computing, satellite communications — and how we could supplement this truly exquisite force of very high-end ships and submarines with a large number of relatively inexpensive, autonomous systems that could operate in a very distributed way."

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ThayerMahan got a $50 million vote of confidence in April from venture capital firms, Vineyard Wind and other investors, as it develops the two initiatives and others. The bubble-curtain system is being used by Vineyard Wind, which has begun a wind farm project off Nantucket.

Vineyard Wind is a joint venture involving Orange-based Avangrid and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners.

For its system to monitor commercial fishing activities, ThayerMahan is working with the Seattle-based Allen Institute for AI and Ocean Aero of Gulfport, Miss. Tethering hydrophone arrays to buoys and trailing them from small, uncrewed vessels, the system can listen over long distances to trawler engines, propellers and gear.

The engines, propellers and gear create unique acoustic signatures for each vessel, according to Kevin Lopes, director of strategy and marketing for ThayerMahan.

"It's a persistence game," Lopes said. "You want to be able to stay out there a long time."

Last month, the three partners in the project received a $465,000 from Schmidt Marine Technology Partners, a San Francisco-based foundation that supports efforts to use technology to protect the health of the world's oceans. The grant was part of a larger pool of 10 grants totaling $3.5 million that drew 200 applicants.

Illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing activities are a worldwide problem that not only impacts the health of the world's oceans, but also does economic damage. Some examples of these types of activities include fishing without a license or quota for certain species, failing to report catches or making false reports, and keeping undersized fish or those otherwise protected by regulations.

One in five wild-caught marine fish are estimated to come from this type of fishing, according to the journal Marine Policy. Global Financial Integrity, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank that focuses on illicit trade and corruption, reports that illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing generates up to $36.4 billion per year in illegal profits, with untold billions of dollars lost to the global economy in unpaid taxes, customs, license fees.

Schmidt Marine Technology Partners' description of the technology being developed by the three partners describes it as "a revolutionary approach to securing our oceans."

"Tens of millions of jobs around the world depend on fisheries, and seafood is the primary protein source for 3 billion people," Wendy Schmidt, president and co-founder of the Schmidt Family Foundation which funds Schmidt Marine Technology Partners, said in a written statement. "The innovators chosen to receive these grants are ensuring that fishers and fisheries—and by extension all of us who rely on them—are secure and sustainable worldwide."

In addition to the ThayerMahan hydrophone network, the NOAA system under development includes Skylight AI, a satellite-based software program from the Allen Institute that identifies suspicious behavior of ocean vessels, particularly as they enter protected fishing areas. Skylight AI is being integrated with a modified ThayerMahan acoustic system to analyze ocean noises.

ThayerMahan has designed the hydrophone array and accompanying systems to be trailed from multiple nautical drones available today, including the Triton vessel from Ocean Aero which received funding under the NOAA contract. Other uncrewed vessels used by ThayerMahan have included Wave Gliders from the Liquid Robotics division of Boeing; and SeaTracs made in Marblehead, Mass.

Growing in Connecticut

ThayerMahan now has a work force of about 150 people, including 60 based out of its southeastern Connecticut headquarters, which is adjacent to Groton-New London Airport. ThayerMahan recently purchased its building as an alternative to creating a new headquarters facility near the foot of the obelisk commemorating the Battle of Groton Heights at Fort Griswold.

The company has opened a facility as well in New Bedford, Mass., where Vineyard Wind is being staged for construction off Nantucket, and in Lexington near MIT's Lincoln Laboratory where ThayerMahan has researched technologies.

Lopes said a significant percentage of ThayerMahan's local employee base worked previously for General Dynamics Electric Boat, which builds submarines at its Groton shipyard with an engineering office in New London. ThayerMahan has been able to hire with the promise of hands-on work with emerging autonomous technologies and artificial intelligence.

"We call it 'whiteboard to wet' in six months — you can come up with an idea, sketch it out, build it, test it, have it in the water and get it to a customer," Lopes said. "You can get your hands dirty doing everything."