Two University of Rhode Island researchers are joining a federally funded fisheries project that will use vessel-tracking data and artificial intelligence to study illegal fishing and pressure on small-scale fishing communities.
Austin Humphries and Lauren Josephs will focus on the Philippines and Kenya, according to URI's Oct. 23 announcement. Humphries chairs the university's Department of Fisheries, Animal and Veterinary Sciences; Josephs is a marine research associate in URI's Coastal Institute.
Their work is part of the new Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Fish, led by Mississippi State University. The lead university's award announcement describes a five-year U.S. State Department award with an initial obligation of $8 million for the first year.
The $8 million is for the wider project, rather than an award of that amount to URI. Neither university's announcement identifies URI's share.
Humphries will lead the marine-fisheries component. He and Josephs plan to examine when distant-water fishing fleets enter waters used by smaller local fishers, with the goal of making the evidence useful to policymakers and enforcement officials.
The broader lab will also study fish farming, aquatic animal health, food safety, nutrition, markets and trade. Mississippi State says it builds on an earlier program that supported 30 research activities in 10 countries.