The AI now watching Falmouth Harbour around the clock

Speed through the inner harbour on a RIB, stray into the Gylly Beach swimming zone, or open the throttle without your kill-cord clipped in, and something in Falmouth is now paying attention.

As Maritime Safety Week runs from 6 to 10 July, Falmouth Harbour has put artificial intelligence at the centre of how it manages safety, efficiency and the environment across the water. It builds on a pilot run last year, which added AI to the harbour’s existing CCTV to create round-the-clock monitoring capable of flagging hazards to people, shipping and sensitive marine habitats before an accident happens.

What the AI actually does

Ordinary CCTV records whatever the camera points at. The AI layer is trained to notice when something is wrong.

Falmouth Harbour CEO Miles Carden puts it simply. “Whereas CCTV simply records everything the camera sees, the AI addition learns to spot and alert us to anything wrong or dangerous going on, logged and time-lined so we have immediate access to any potential hazards or infringements.”

The list of what it watches for is longer than you might expect. “That could be a RIB (Rigid Inflatable Boat) speeding between moorings over the 6 knot inner harbour limit, or a motorboat crossing into the Gylly Beach buoyed swimming zone which could obviously be extremely dangerous to swimmers and other non-powered craft like paddle-boarders,” Miles says.

It goes further than speed and swimmers. “It could alert us to a vessel that’s broken its moorings, or that’s at risk of spilling fuel in the harbour before any disaster actually happens. It can even alert us if a speed boat operator isn’t using the kill-cord which should cut an engine if anything happens to the skipper, or if children aren’t wearing life-jackets, anything where people or the environment are unnecessarily being put at risk.”

📷Gylly Beach swim cam showing the buoyed swim zone – Credit: Falmouth Harbour

Trained, funded and GDPR compliant

The Harbour AI project is government-funded through Innovate UK and led by RoboK, and it is now being rolled out across the UK with Falmouth Harbour among the first to run it.

The Falmouth Harbour team has been fully trained in how to use it, including hands-on work in vessel monitoring, detecting unusual movements and assessing environmental risk. The system is built to stay GDPR compliant so privacy is protected.

📷Harbour AI - ferry – Credit: Falmouth Harbour

“We have no wish to be heavy-handed”

The obvious question is what happens when the AI catches something.

“As a Harbour Authority we have absolutely no wish to be heavy-handed,” Miles says, “but there are clearly very good reasons why maritime laws exist, primarily for people’s safety and welfare, and if necessary in serious cases we will prosecute offenders. Our AI CCTV will provide clear evidence if that should be the case.”

The move sits alongside the Department of Transport’s Maritime Safety campaign, which promotes safety standards, shares best practice and raises awareness of risk across ports, marinas and coastal environments around the UK.

📷Harbour AI - quay – Credit: Falmouth Harbour

The group speaking for everyone on the water

Running quietly behind the technology is the Falmouth Harbour Users Group, or HUG, formed eighteen months ago to bring commercial and leisure water users together.

Its members pass ideas, concerns and information both ways, representing groups as wide-ranging as sailors, swimmers and paddleboarders, fishers and local councils, marine businesses, the RNLI, HM Coastguard, environmental organisations and neighbouring harbour authorities.

Falmouth HUG chairman Dave Owens says the point is to leave nobody out. “Our aim is to make sure that everyone is represented, informed and involved in everything that affects how we all use the harbour safely and enjoyably, whilst respecting our outstanding environment and different users.”

He describes it as a two-way channel. “We’re working closely with the Harbour team and the Falmouth Harbour Commissioners as well as with the groups we represent, making sure everyone is kept abreast of what’s going on, whether it be Harbour bye-laws designed to keep water users safe or concerns about which the Harbour authorities may not be aware.”

Some of it is straightforward. “It might be something as simple as making sure all water users know there are speed limits in the Inner Harbour, or supporting local organisations to run events in a safer way, or find better ways to protect the environments and habitats around the Harbour.”

Water users and stakeholders can reach the group by emailing [email protected]. More on the harbour’s safety, leisure, commercial and environmental work is on the Falmouth Harbour website.

📷The Harbour-AI monitoring platform uses Falmouth Harbour’s existing CCTV infrastructure. Photo composite – Credit: Falmouth Harbour