28.09.2015

The Internet of the Seas

Activities

The GEDB program hosted and curated a "Fish Hack” Transformations Lab 30 September-1 October, bringing together thinkers from within and outside of fisheries to imagine elements of more sustainable fisheries. It was held at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences with the aim to develop a prototype for a new disruptive technology for more sustainable fishing. The session was co-led by GEDB and Espersen A/S, a seafood company sourcing MSC certified Baltic Cod. Another Tomorrow, a company that helps prototype innovations for a new future, facilitated the process.

The vision
During these two days a vision for a disruptive technology, the Internet of the Seas (IoS), was created in the form of an Application Programming Interface (API). An API is the building blocks of data management and software development. The vision is that IoS should link together data and innovations in the seafood system -from catch data and biological data, to market data (from sea to plate). It should also link together actors at different levels of the supply chain, including resource users, governance actors, consumers, and innovators. Rather than starting with a grassroots project and scaling up, this project begin at a scale that links together already existing innovations within the seafood system.

IoS should be an open source platform for innovation, one example of an innovation could be startups that link information gathered in smart fishing nets to distributors and consumers. Fisheries management agencies will then operate in real time, building trust among the fishers. Consumers, agencies, and distributors can order their seafood in real time and know exactly how their fish was caught.

Experiments for transformation
The ‘Fish-Hack’ was part of a Transformation Lab (TLabs) run in conjunction with the Transformations 2015 conference in Stockholm, 5-7 October, 2015. TLabs are spaces for joint experimentation, with a carefully designed and facilitated process, to create a series of prototype solutions to complex problems.

The project’s next step is producing a conceptual vision in the form of a video prototype for people to rally around.


For more information please contact: Tracy Van Holt or Beatrice Crona