Traces of lake fish: catch information and sustainability

The project was carried out 2017 – 2018 and has ended.

UPDATE 2020: Mobile app was introduced in May 2020 and it is available in Google Play Store for inland commercial fishers. Read more below.

The new Fishing Act provides that a commercial fishers shall keep a journal of fishing in waters other than the sea area and notify the controlling authority of the catches they have taken (the Catch Report) at least once per calendar year. The project aims at developing and piloting a system that enables commercial fishers to send the catch data by a smartphone application directly to the controlling authority’s database.

For the promotion of the sustainable fishery and the transparency of the fish supply chain

Consumers show growing interest in sustainability and origin of food – fish is not an exception. Finland lacks systems of assessing the sustainability of the stocks of fish and the quantity of fishing, both in the inland water fishery and small-scale coastal fishery. The project compares the existing systems of sustainable fishing and their suitability to small-scale professional fishing and the information needs of these systems. Recommendations on the further measures are given as a result of the comparison.

In the project Järvikala.fi, a system developed earlier by this university, will be further developed. When the lot reaches different stages of the supply chain, a consumer will gain information about the progress and temperature of the fish lot through the monitoring system based on RFID and mobile technology. A new facility in the Järvikala.fi system will be developed to transmit the catch information to the authorities. The communication of the sustainable fishing will also be incorporated in the system. This way, the fisher who uses the mobile system could choose if s/he uses it for catch reporting, sustainability assessment, traceability purposes, or for all these functions.

The measures of the project will strengthen the competitiveness of the field, facilitate the preservation and continuity of the fishery trade, and increase the value of the catch. The project will be carried out in co-operation with the National Resources Institute Finland (Luke).

Current

Mobile app helps commercial fishermen at work (8.6.2020)

The new Fisheries Act came into effect in 2016. According to it, it is mandatory for the commercial fishermen to report the catch data from inland waters to the authorities. South-Eastern Finland University of Applied Sciences Xamk has developed a mobile application for this purpose. With the app it is easy to notify authorities immediately while on boat or right after coming ashore.

Until now, the catch data has been reported on a paper form or a pc interface. The new mobile app will allow the commercial fishermen to report catch data easily and directly to the authorities’ database.

This greatly facilitates the transmission of catch data as well as the processing of transmitted data by the authorities.

The app will smoothen the work of the commercial fishermen, since the mandatory reporting can now be done easily on the phone instead of making notes at the end of working day. The report is easy to do immediately ater the catch, when the amount of catch is in the recent memory.

The commercial fishermen do not benefit from the reporting financially. That is why the reporting should be as effortless as possible. Hence, many user-friendly functions were taken into account when developing the application.

The use of the application is simple. First, the fisherman specifies the fishing areas and the fishing gear typical for himself. After that, the actual reporting of the catch can start. Several commercial fishermen tested the application various times during the development phase, and the app was perceived to be easy to use.

Since May 26th 2020, the application has been available from Google Play Store. The application and its maintenance were transferred to Suomen sisävesiammattikalastajien liitto (the Finnish Inland Fishermen). Xamk still owns the right to the further development of the app in the future.

In the future, easy reporting of the catch will enable more real-time monitoring of the status of fish stocks. In addition, the origin and traceability of the haul can be brought into the value chain, meaning that the consumer will be able to obtain information about where and how the fish has been caught – and even what environmental impact it has. Data can be taken forward with a QR code in product packaging, for example.

Eetu Karhunen
RDI-specialist

p. +358 40 545 6522

eetu.karhunen(at)xamk.fi

Project name: