Fishing has always involved ingenuity and invention, from the Pacific Islanders’ ancient tailoring of bones and shells into fish hooks (long before metal arrived in their cultures) to modern uses of everything from rotational sensors to machine learning to digitally understand where, when and how fishing takes place. Innovation typically takes place “in-house”, i.e. led by the fishing industry itself, with an increasing movement of start-ups, NGOs and entrepreneurs – motivated primarily by tackling the environmental and social challenges of seafood production – now joining this challenge. We have created a new “Sustainable Fishing Challenges” group on WILDLABS to try foster more of this innovation and collaboratively make fishing fit for the future.
At a very basic level, the three essential elements of fishing are 1. The vessel, 2. The fishing equipment (or “gear”), and 3. The fish (obviously). While some commonplace technologies are unrecognisable from those of the past (i.e. sonar fish finders, digital catch logbooks), some of the crucial components of the job have altered little (i.e. net design). Newly proposed vessel, gear or fish catch monitoring technologies must be robust, efficient and durable, meaning innovation needs to be answering a genuine need and be subject to thorough, collaborative testing (and consensus-building) before new advances are adopted across whole fleets or countries.
In this group, we challenge users to contribute their insights/expertise/opportunities across each of these three areas.
Learn more about these challenge areas:
Group curators
Fauna & Flora International (FFI)
Fisheries and Biodiversity Techical Specialist - lead FFI's insititutional fisheries strategy
- 0 Resources
- 14 Discussions
- 3 Groups
Zoological Society London (ZSL)
Water-landing fixed-wing drones in marine ecology and maritime surveillance in MPAs and beyond.
- 1 Resources
- 0 Discussions
- 10 Groups
Freaklabs
I'm an engineer and product designer working on wildlife conservation technology.
- 0 Resources
- 237 Discussions
- 13 Groups
Software developer at Octophin Digital and student at Aberystwyth University. Bug Fanatic🪲
- 0 Resources
- 0 Discussions
- 19 Groups
Stanford University
Doctoral Research at Stanford University | Interested in data science and observational approaches for issues in coastal health
- 0 Resources
- 0 Discussions
- 8 Groups
Conservation Newbie, Technologist, Applications Developer, Hardware Tinkerer
- 0 Resources
- 17 Discussions
- 9 Groups
WILDLABS Coordinator based in Southern California
- 18 Resources
- 110 Discussions
- 14 Groups
Fauna & Flora International (FFI)
Working in marine conservation in Africa (with a quite strong focus on East Africa so far) with Fauna & Flora International.
- 0 Resources
- 0 Discussions
- 4 Groups
WILDLABS
I'm the Community Manager at WILDLABS
- 31 Resources
- 511 Discussions
- 28 Groups
- 0 Resources
- 0 Discussions
- 4 Groups
Junior machine learning engineer with a background in data science and physics
- 0 Resources
- 0 Discussions
- 20 Groups
PhD student on movement and behaviour of sharks
- 0 Resources
- 0 Discussions
- 9 Groups
Allen Institute for AI
Communications for EarthRanger and Skylight
- 2 Resources
- 1 Discussions
- 9 Groups
Article
News: The Latest in Conservation Tech
WILDLABS Team
Check out this round-up of three of the latest news stories from the conservation tech world. See more conservation tech news by subscribing to our bi-monthly digest.
10 March 2022
Article
Our first WILDLABS Editorial Series is now available for download! Read the full Technical Difficulties collection and explore stories of challenges, failures, and lessons learned from the conservation tech community....
19 January 2022
Funding
The Centre for Statistics in Ecology, Environment and Conservation, a research group within the Department of Statistical Sciences at the University of Cape Town, is now hiring for a funded postdoc or PhD postion with...
1 November 2021
Article
Technical Difficulties: Tracking Thunderbird
Ellie Warren
In her article for the Technical Failures Editorial Series, WILDLABS' Ellie Warren discusses how the loss of one tagged sea turtle represents the wider challenges faced by conservation efforts, and how the collaborative...
8 October 2021
Article
Announcing the 2021 CLP Team Award Winners
Conservation Leadership Programme
Our friends at the Conservation Leadership Programme are proud to announce their 2021 CLP Team Award recipients! We'll be featuring interviews with some CLP winners about their projects, the technology they're using,...
17 May 2021
Article
Using AIS Data to Investigate the World’s Fishing Ports
Max Schofield
How can remotely monitoring fishing vessels allow us to prevent illegal and unsustainable fishing practices? Check out this blog post from Max Schofield, originally shared on OceanMind, to learn about how AIS (Automated...
2 February 2021
Article
FIS Call for Expressions of Interest (closed)
Fisheries Innovation Scotland
WILDLABS community members are invited to submit an Expression of Interest to Fisheries Innovation Scotland (FIS) to participate in two research projects involving conservation tech's role in the future of sustainable...
8 December 2020
Article
Sustainable Fishing Challenges: Fish Catch Monitoring
Daniel Steadman
As we launch our new Sustainable Fishing Challenges group in the WILDLABS community, we are excited to welcome Daniel Steadman, the group manager, to give us an overview of three major areas in which #tech4wildlife...
4 December 2020
Article
Hackathon Opportunity: Vaquita Hacks
The Conservation Project International
Do you have innovative #tech4wildlife ideas that could save one of the most endangered species on earth from extinction? Apply now to join Vaquita Hack, a hackathon for students and early career conservationists! This...
10 November 2020
Funding
SmartOceans 2020
Smart Oceans
Do you use #tech4wildlife in your ocean conservation work and want to get creative for prize money? Smart Oceans 2020 wants to see your videos, photos, and infographics that highlight ocean challenges or solutions. The...
8 October 2020
Article
Sustainable Fishing Challenges: Fishing Gear Innovations
Daniel Steadman
Today, Sustainable Fishing Challenges group leader Daniel Steadman discusses how fishing gear itself could benefit from fresh technological innovations to prevent both environmental damage and damage to species and...
19 August 2020
Article
Sustainable Fishing Challenges: Fishing Vessels of the Future
Daniel Steadman
As we launch our new Sustainable Fishing Challenges group in the WILDLABS community, we are excited to welcome Daniel Steadman, the group manager, to give us an overview of three major areas in which #tech4wildlife...
4 August 2020
| Description | Activity | Replies | Groups | Updated |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hey Evelyn, I work on building self-powered buoys that collect various sensor data (sea surface and sub-surface) that can be sent back to mainland over cellular/satellite... |
+4
|
Sustainable Fishing Challenges | 2 months 3 weeks ago | |
| I’m an editor at FoodUnfolded – an EU-funded platform focused on reconnecting people with their food and where it comes from,... |
|
Sustainable Fishing Challenges | 1 year 2 months ago | |
| Hi all, Just some things I've come across on Twitter or through Wildlabs that weren't in a thread yet, for everyone's... |
|
Sustainable Fishing Challenges | 1 year 3 months ago | |
| Hi all! I am not in the marine/aquatic space myself, but I stumbled across this resource and wanted to share with you. It's a list... |
|
Sustainable Fishing Challenges | 1 year 4 months ago | |
| Hi Karima - Are you looking for volunteers in specific regions or fisheries? |
|
Sustainable Fishing Challenges | 1 year 5 months ago | |
| Happy new year all! A couple of great resources on the use of technology in the small-scale fisheries sector. Firstly a series of... |
|
Sustainable Fishing Challenges | 1 year 7 months ago | |
| Hi Wildlabbers, Following our recent Tech Tutors episode on monitoring fishing (check it out here! and ask Max... |
|
Sustainable Fishing Challenges | 1 year 8 months ago | |
| Hi Wildlabbers, Welcome back to Tech Tutors for season 2! This season's first episode featured Oceanmind's... |
|
Marine Conservation, Remote Sensing & GIS, Sustainable Fishing Challenges | 1 year 8 months ago | |
| Dan, I'm tempted to add that description into our event reminder that's about to go out. Brilliant. |
|
Sustainable Fishing Challenges | 1 year 8 months ago | |
| The fantastic team of fishing innovators and industry leaders at Fisheries Innovation Scotland (FIS) are calling for expressions of... |
|
Sustainable Fishing Challenges | 1 year 8 months ago | |
| Hello, I'm the Science Comms Manager at the MSC. I want to let you all know about our Ocean Stewardship Fund which opened for... |
|
Sustainable Fishing Challenges | 1 year 10 months ago | |
| Hi Wildlabbers, There's another free webinar series coming up, starting this Thursday, 24 September! This one... |
|
Sustainable Fishing Challenges | 1 year 10 months ago |
News: The Latest in Conservation Tech
WILDLABS Team
10 March 2022 at 12:00am
Download Now: The Technical Difficulties Editorial Series
WILDLABS Team
19 January 2022 at 12:00am
Opportunity: PhD or Postdoctoral Research Fellowships - Chinstrap penguin biologging
Chris Oosthuizen
1 November 2021 at 12:00am
Technical Difficulties: Tracking Thunderbird
Ellie Warren
8 October 2021 at 12:00am
Innovators wanted: the UN Food Systems Summit
4 June 2021 at 01:00pm
Webinar: Implementing SMART in the Marine Environment
SMART
20 May 2021 at 12:00am
Announcing the 2021 CLP Team Award Winners
Conservation Leadership Programme
17 May 2021 at 12:00am
Recent articles/resources
14 April 2021 at 01:31pm
Repository of fish/fisheries tech projects!
9 April 2021 at 02:53pm
Sea turtle monitoring
11 February 2021 at 11:44am
18 March 2022 at 11:53pm
Hi Evelyn,
I learned of the torsooi database to collect sea turtle data. The database per se may not be that interesting as an asnwer to your question but I know they have developed software that recognizes individual sea turtles based on pictures of their heads. The pattern of the head segments allows this.
If you manage to make pictures remotely, by land-based cameras or drones or whatever, this may help monitoring the individuals.
In my humble and non-expert opinion, this software has the potential to do away with metal tags.
cheers
Frank
18 May 2022 at 06:03am
Hey Evelyn,
I work on building self-powered buoys that collect various sensor data (sea surface and sub-surface) that can be sent back to mainland over cellular/satellite comms. Are these nesting sites close to shore or are they relatively far out at sea?
Best,
Aadu
O-FISH (Officer's Fisheries Information Sharing Hub)
9 February 2021 at 01:42am
18 February 2021 at 12:01am
Hi Karima - Are you looking for volunteers in specific regions or fisheries?
Using AIS Data to Investigate the World’s Fishing Ports
Max Schofield
2 February 2021 at 12:00am
Small-scale fisheries and tech resources
5 January 2021 at 09:45am
FIS Call for Expressions of Interest (closed)
Fisheries Innovation Scotland
8 December 2020 at 12:00am
Challenge #3: Fish Catch Monitoring
4 December 2020 at 08:47pm
13 December 2021 at 06:19pm
Hi Evelyn
Not sure if you've come across this paper about green turtles in Turks and Caicos
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmars.2020.00690/full