AI-based app used to detect floating marine macro-litter

Floating sea macro-litter is a threat to the conservation of marine ecosystems worldwide. The largest density of floating litter is in the great ocean gyres – systems of circular currents that spin and catch litter– but the polluting waste is abundant in coastal waters and semi closed seas such as the Mediterranean.

A team of the Faculty of Biology in Universitat de Barcelona and the Biodiversity Research Institute of the UB (IRBio) has presented an app based on an algorithm designed with artificial intelligence techniques to automate the study and quantification of floating plastics in the sea through aerial photography.