One surface-treatment technology, and ocean data.

Keep it off

• We are continuing rope trials in the sea at Kure. Rope →

Help it take hold

• With a soil improver made from treated rice husks, we confirmed faster germination and growth of radishes in Hiroshima Prefecture. A farm in Takehara, Hiroshima Prefecture, used it against the problems that come from growing maize in the same field year after year, and has gone on using it for other crops since. Rice husks for better soil →

Ocean data

• Together with a laboratory at Hiroshima University, we analysed satellite data, combining radar images and other imagery. When checked against the rafts actually floating in the sea, our latest analysis found about 90% of the oyster rafts in Hiroshima Bay. Not every raft is found, so it is meant to be used alongside a lookout. Finding oyster rafts in satellite imagery →

• The Town & Gown joint research of Kure City and Hiroshima University (October 2025 to August 2026) produced a research and development prototype of a system that shows the positions of rafts found by satellite on a device aboard the boat. We are continuing to develop the system. It is an aid to navigation, not a replacement for charts, radar, AIS or keeping a lookout. Raft positions on a boat’s screen (an aid to navigation) →

• We are developing a system in which a smartphone running the app picks up the IKAK signal, uses its strength to estimate the relative distance to the raft, and sounds an alert when it judges the boat is getting close. A phone alert when you near an oyster raft →

• We are developing IKAK, a small beacon fixed to rafts. In the Town & Gown joint research of Kure City and Hiroshima University (October 2025 to August 2026), we were responsible for developing the device and the system. IKAK sends out only its own ID number and holds no position of its own. The smartphones of passing boats pick it up. We do not distinguish which boat a signal came from, and we never publish where boats or fishers have been. IKAK (a beacon for oyster rafts) →

Take it off

• Alongside antifouling, we are also building a prototype underwater drone (ROV) for cleaning fouling off ship hulls. Underwater drone (ROV) →

• We are developing a cleaning device that removes fouling from ship bottoms with the force of collapsing bubbles (cavitation). The proof of concept was done at Marine Craft Kazenoko and experiments in Shenzhen, and we have a working device. Cleaning with collapsing bubbles (cavitation) →