[PressRelease] Announcement of “Ocean Eyes Co., Ltd.” at press conference held on May 15

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On Wednesday, May 15, 2019, a press conference was held at the Tokyo Office of Kyoto University to announce the establishment of a new company, “Ocean Eyes Co., Ltd. (English name OceanEyes Co., Ltd.)” (Hereafter, OE), whose business domain is fisheries and marine products.

OE was founded on April 1, 2019 and is funded by researchers at Kyoto University and the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC). Our business philosophy is to realize sustainable fisheries and marine industry by using the latest marine AI technology (FishTech) based on advanced image processing and marine physics.

On the day of the press conference, Director Hidekazu Kasahara (Kyoto University) presided over the meeting. At the beginning of the meeting, he explained the current situation of the “managed fishery” which is a trend in the world fishery industry and fishing industry, and the current situation of Japanese fisheries. He explained that the deep learning and marine physical modeling research that had been developed by Kyoto University and JAMSTEC was used in “resource estimation” “Improving operational efficiency using operational and environmental data” and “environmental monitoring” which could be considered as a solution to this problem, in order to return the research results to society.

Representative Director Yusuke Tanaka (JAMSTEC) then explained the service of the Sea Condition Prediction System “SEAoME (Shiome)” and its future prospects. The “SEAoME” which provides seamless marine environment information from the coast to the open ocean using ocean numerical models, can predict ocean conditions up to 14 days in advance based on data from the Japan Meteorological Agency and other agencies. The system is already running on a browser-based basis, and is being offered on a trial to fishery operators, and improvements are being made in response to requests. He also announced that OE will develop higher-resolution analysis and prediction in the future.

On the other hand, as a service planned to be developed in the near future, Associate Professor Masaaki Iiyama (Kyoto University), a co-founder of OE, explained “Fishing Ground Navi” which supports the decision of fishing grounds. The development is divided into 4 phases, and in phase 1, the seawater surface temperature data of the meteorological satellite “Himawai” is complemented by deep learning and provided in near real time. After Phase 2, the scope of learning will be expanded to include fishing ground prediction using oceanographic patterns and operation data, and prediction data using “SEAoME” technology will be made available to improve the types and details of information available to fishers during operations.

The reporters who attended the conference asked many technical questions, and after the conference, we were able to exchange many opinions, questions, and opinions with each researcher. Thank you very much for your attendance.