April 1st 2010

_posts/2010-04-01-oil-tuna.md

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+---
+layout: post
+title: "Oil, Blue Fin Tuna, and the CGAL Surface Mesh Generator"
+description: "dispute in the CGAL project."
+category: "news"
+tags: []
+---
+{% include JB/setup %}
+
+<p>
+April 1st, 2010
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Rarely a successful technology transfer lead to as much internal
+dispute in the CGAL project as this one.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Helping software development teams of several oil&gas companies to
+integrate the CGAL Surface Mesh generator in geophysics data
+interpretation software, Dr. Laurent Rineau, R&D engineer at Geometry
+Factory, realized that the very same technolgoy can be used to find
+Blue Fin Tuna in sonar data. A body of oil and a body of a fish are
+technically speaking the same. Dr. Rineau spent the first half of 2009
+on two important aspects: speed, as the interpretation has to happen
+fast enough that the tuna cannot swim away, and secondly: dealing
+efficiently with sharp features. The latter also impacts performance
+as it is obvious that the generation of a surface mesh of a fin with
+7812 triangles takes longer than the approximation with 112 triangles,
+especially as the average school counts 20,000 fish.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The second half of 2009 was a reality check. In a pilot project run by
+the Japanese Fisheries Agency (JFA) the software called "Poisson" was
+used on a Japanese research trawler in the Mediterranean Sea. It
+became quickly clear that this was disruptive technology.  Even better,
+it turned out that the hypothesis tuna would get extinct, if agressive
+fishing continues, can no longer be hold. As Dr Hamashi Sushimi,
+project leader at the JFA, explained: "Tuna of the size of a Sushi can
+now be detected in waters deeper than ever - 2010 is not 'Peak tuna'".
+This was among one of the reasons why Blue Fin Tuna was not put on the
+red list of endagered species at the last Doha Round in March 2010.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In order to secure at the same time the future of GeometryFactory, and
+the free license of CGAL's surface mesher, the patent submission number
+455.54325-2.01.2010 covering this technology, is deliberately limited
+to the scope of fishing.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Useful Links
+<br>
+- <a href="http://www.cgal.org/Pkg/SurfaceMesher3">Surface Mesh Generator</a>
+<br>
+- <a href="http://www.jfa.maff.go.jp/">Interview with Dr Hamashi Sushimi from the Japanese Fishery Agency</a>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Contact Information
+<br>
+Press map: [email protected]
+<br>
+License inquiries: [email protected]
+</p>