European fishing industry trade body Europêche has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Innomar AS, a pioneering company that provides ocean technology for fisheries, aquaculture, ocean data and marine operations.
Through the agreement, both organisations will seek to explore new ways of enhancing sustainable fishing and new methods of fishing in the EU using state-of-the-art technology and systems developed by Innomar.
They say that in turn, this can create new business opportunities and enable fishers to harvest healthy fish while continuing to minimise impact on the ecosystems.
Innomar’s main focus is providing traceable smart buoys and related software that tracks, monitors and gathers marine intelligence related to equipment and gear deployed in the ocean. This, coupled with Innomar’s fishing traps, would allow fishers to execute controlled fishing with minimised risk of unwanted bycatch such as mammals or seabirds.
Some traps are even designed for targeted fishing of specific species, such as halibut.
The traps are available in various sizes, from smaller traps that are single person operated to multiple traps in chains, very large traps for industrial fisheries as well as handling gear for easy deployment and harvesting. The traps may be placed near fish farms, offshore wind power installations or other sensitive areas.
“Fishing companies are absolutely conscious of the need to take care of the marine environment. Our businesses and operations very much depend on healthy fish stocks and ecosystems. Fishers are therefore always looking at new ways of reducing the environmental impact of traditional fishing gears while looking at innovative ways to catch fish,” Europêche Managing Director Daniel Voces said.
He added that the collaboration with Innomar supports this continuous process.
Innomar CEO Tore Halvorsen said that the company was delighted to have signed the collaboration agreement with Europêche.
“This collaboration will enable our common thoughts about how we shall manage our ocean resources into action, and we look forward to implementing our technology in Europe.
“We base our business model on our own research and development which is done in cooperation with world-leading scientists and institutes. Together we create value by developing new digital tools and modern gears for sustainable fishing. Better quality, safety and less environmental impact are core principles we pursue to increase value throughout the supply chain, from catch to plate,” Halvorsen said.
