Mini-exhibition of innovations for future fisheries
To present results from the European smartfish project, a mini-symposium was organized at Norway House (the Norwegian embassy) in Brussels last week. What was on offer: some of the latest high tech for commercial fishing activities to optimize their resource efficiency, improve automatic data collection, monitoring compliance to overall reduce the ecological footprint of the extraction industry. Some hardware that was on display included: catch scanners - cameras that register and identify (via AI) catches on conveyor belts, underwater cameras that monitor what enters into a net to allow for real-time decisions whether to continue fishing or not (see an earlier post when I joined a field trial in Denmark). Acoustic triggers (from marport) to a receiver with a release mechanism to close a codend underwater. This can come in handy for actively manipulating catch compositions. For example, a skipper can decide to close the codend as soon as the target species enters the net, thereby reducing the amount of unwanted bycatch. Visual light sensors to illuminate parts of fishing gear to either attract target or deter unwanted bycatch species to eventually improve trawl selectivity. if you are interested in more detailed results of how these technologies can make fishing more sustainable, feel free to get in touch and I can connect you with the involved researchers and technology experts.