- Many companies around the world are developing technology to make fishing and aquatic resources sustainable.
- These include using artificial intelligence to identify fisheries that disrupt and support marine food webs, and beacons that attempt to lure non-target species into fishing nets with the intention of capturing them.
- With a rapidly increasing world population highlighting the importance of sustainably producing protein, experts say it is important to find ways to make fishing less harmful and more efficient.
For people who fish for a living, getting out of the nets is tedious work. It is expensive, labor intensive and wears out the fishing vessel and gear. For accidentally caught marine animals, the consequences are even worse – often fatal. From an ecological point of view, the inadvertent killing of large numbers of animals can disrupt marine ecosystems and the food chains that maintain their balance. However, bicach accounts for 40% of the world’s fisheries.
UK-based startup SafetyNet Technologies is trying to find a technological solution. The company deploys LED lights of different colors and intensities that anglers can attach to gear to attract certain species. You can change the lights depending on the type of fish you want to target.
“Different species can see different lights and are attracted to them,” Tom Rossiter, head of precision fishing and sales at SafetyNet Technologies, told Mongabay in a video interview. They are triggers that we use to get certain species to go to the net.
According to research with fisheries in England and the US that have tried the lighting technology, Russiter says the method can reduce overcrowding, but larger trials are needed to show the technology’s effectiveness unequivocally. “To create statistical confidence, we need to increase the size of the test more,” he said.
While Rossiter acknowledges the risk of overfishing due to overharvesting of target species, SafetyNet Technologies said it works to screen users to prevent the device from being misused. “We do due diligence on our customers and partners so that their values are aligned with our own,” he said.
Concentrating target species with lighting technology has helped fishermen save not only time but also carbon-emitting fuel, the survey found. “We also don’t want people going out there to fish and burning fuel,” Rossiter said.
Safetynet Technologies is one of several companies around the world trying to develop technology that makes fishing more sustainable and efficient. These companies are trying to use artificial intelligence, imaging and lighting technology and improved fishing nets to monitor fish health, curb invasive species and reduce overcrowding.
The demand is clear. Numerous reports and studies have shown that competition from fishing and invasive species are among the many factors contributing to the decline of marine life. In the year According to a 2022 report by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), only 64.6 percent of fish stocks were being caught at “biologically sustainable levels” in 2019, a 1.2 percent decrease from 2017 and down from 90 percent in the 1970s. With the world’s rapidly increasing human population highlighting the importance of sustainably obtaining protein, researchers say it is urgent to find ways to make fish less harmful and more productive.
Efforts to find solutions are on the rise.
An initiative by the New Zealand government, scientists and three seafood companies aims to reduce overfishing. Precision Seafood Harvesting has successfully replaced traditional flood nets with a net that allows small fish to escape and the rest to remain in the water after being caught. This gives anglers time to release their target fish before pulling them in with better survival chances than traditional nets.
Another company, Radmantis, based in Ohio, USA, focuses on water. The company’s device tracks fish using images and artificial intelligence and classifies them based on physical characteristics and appearance. When AI models recognize signs that fish are sick, such as fin discoloration, parasites or altered swimming patterns, Radmantis devices direct healthy fish to a different outlet than those used by healthy fish.
“In a serious aquaculture system, a disease can exist and it can spread and lead to the total loss of the tank before you realize there’s a problem,” Robert Huber, co-founder of Radmantis, told Mongabay in a video interview.
As fish swim through it, doors open and close in the device made by Radmantis. Video provided by Radmantis.
Aquaculture is expected to grow in the coming years and the FAO report emphasizes the need for sustainable expansion through technological innovations and policy support. Radmantis production aims to reduce the spread of infectious diseases, one of the main logistical and financial barriers to fish farming.
In addition to aquaculture, the company’s fish classification system helps identify and control invasive species in freshwater ecosystems, he said. Huber One potential application is in the Great Lakes region of North America, where sea lampreys are found (Petromyzon marinusOne of the most ecologically and financially damaging invasive species in US history, it has decimated native fish populations and the fishing economy.
“We put our equipment in some of the bottlenecks where the sea lamprey migrate, and if they’re identified, we can take them out to an outlet that puts them in a holding facility,” Huber said. This app is yet to be tested.
Technological intervention in fishing is not a simple task as in agriculture, the harsh environment of the water against which the equipment is opposed.
“Compared to the agricultural industry, fishing is very backward in terms of technology,” said Rossiter of Safety Net Technologies. “You have to engineer for an underwater environment and there’s a lot of distortion and knocking and it must be very difficult to deal with all of that.”
Despite the challenges, Huber says the urgent need to purchase seafood responsibly and sustainably will drive further innovation and shape fisheries and the ecosystem.
“Meeting the planet’s growing human demand for food is a critical issue for our planet,” Huber said. “Blue tech is a vibrant innovation space and opens up more potential jobs with a smaller resource footprint.”
Flag Image: A school of fish at sunset. Image by Jordan Robins/Ocean Image Bank.
Quotations:
Davis, RWD, Cripps, SJ, Nixon, A., & Porter, G., (2009). Identifying and estimating global marine fisheries. Marine Policy, 33(4), 661-672. doi:10.1016/j.marpol.2009.01.003
FAO (2022) The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture 2022: Towards a Blue Transformation. Rome, FAO doi: 10.4060/cc0461en
