Improved YOLOv5 Algorithm for Real-Time Prediction of Fish Yield in All Cage Schools

Cage aquaculture makes it easier to produce high-quality aquatic products and allows full use of water resources. 3Therefore, cage aquaculture development is highly valued globally. However, the current digitalization level of cage aquaculture is low, and the farming risks are high. Research and development of digital management of the fish population in cages are greatly desired. Real-time monitoring of the activity status of the fish population and changes in the fish population size in cages is a pressing issue that needs to be addressed. This paper proposes an improved network called CC-YOLOv5 by embedding CoordConv modules to replace the original ConV convolution modules in the network, which improves the model’s generalization capability. By using two-stage detection logic, the target detection accuracy is enhanced to realize prediction of the number of fish populations. OpenCV is then used to measure fish tail lengths to establish growth curves of the fish and to predict the output of the fish population in the cages. Experimental results demonstrate that the mean average precision (mAP) of the improved algorithm increases by 14.9% compared to the original YOLOv5, reaching 95.4%. This research provides an effective solution to promote the intelligentization of cage aquaculture processes. It also lays the foundation for AI (Artificial Intelligence) applications in other aquaculture scenarios.