Accelerated development and deployment of computer vision models for invasive aquatic pests

Abstract Aquatic non-indigenous species (NIS) incur significant cultural, environmental and economic costs worldwide, and human surveillance is expensive and impractical at large scales. Computer vision models (CVMs) deployed on remote and autonomous vehicles can reduce the burden on trained human observers, but aquatic environments present unique challenges and lack frameworks for biosecurity-focused development and deployment. We present a practical framework for developing and deploying new species-specific CVMs for real-time use across surface vessel and remote vehicle platforms. We demonstrate the utility of our framework through its application to several taxonomically and ecologically diverse NIS in New Zealand: Mediterranean fanworm Sabella spallanzanii , South African oxygen weed Lagarosiphon major, and exotic Caulerpa ( Caulerpa brachypus and C. parvifolia ). For S. spallanzanii , we demonstrate efficient training from small datasets and deployment for real-time detection. Using exotic Caulerpa , we show how CVMs can be rapidly improved during an early incursion response. For L. major , standardised field validation methods enable the comparison of CVM and human detection rates across diverse locations and operating conditions. Collectively, these case studies demonstrate that our framework enables accurate detection and the robust assessment of model effectiveness under realistic field conditions and can be effectively applied to imagery from multiple platforms.