EVERYFISH is an EU-funded project led by SINTEF Ocean, where 17 partners from 8 different countries are cooperating to develop the next generation of technological solutions for automatic registration and reporting of catch data from fishing vessels. The partners are research, academic, industry and governance actors, as well as technology providers from across Europe. Automated catch recording and reporting will be tested on board European fishing vessels, and these data will then be used to develop innovative governance strategies that make use of the automatically reported catch data.
The technological innovations that are being developed in EveryFish will enable the sector to optimise automatic data collection to ensure accurate reporting of the catch in terms of size, weight, and species. Automated data collection will decrease the amount of work fishers have to do, as catch registration today is done manually. Manual data entry could lead to data bias, for example from not being able to identify all of the species (especially if they start catching new ones), or other types of human error. Automatic catch registration will therefore make sure that the entire catch is registered with great detail, and will make it easier for both the fishers and the governments to ensure the fishing activities are happening according to the local rules and regulations. The increased level of detail will also generate knowledge and data for future conservation, research, and governance activities.
The project is largely based on the EU project SMARTFISH H2020, which wrapped up in 2022. SMARTFISH H2020 aimed to optimise resource efficiency, improve automatic data collection for fish stock assessment, provide evidence of compliance with fishery regulations, and reduce the ecological impact of the industry. EVERYFISH will continue the work done in SMARTFISH H2020, focussing on the processes taking place above water, that is after the fish have been found and fished.
In EVERYFISH our objectives are to
- Lower the barrier to entry for uptake of AI in the fisheries sector
- Ensure better work conditions and more accurate catch reporting in the fisheries at large
- Standardise catch data for trustworthy and transparent sharing
- Detect anomalous fishing events and unforeseen changes to the marine ecosystem
- Digitise fisheries management to the best interests of both the fishers and the fish
- Identify and address implementation challenges and opportunities
- Test, validate, and promote the project results in European fisheries
The partners in EVERYFISH are
- SINTEF Ocean
- Institute of Marine Research
- Technical University of Denmark (DTU) Aqua
- Norwegian Directorate of Fisheries
- AZTI
- Melbu Systems
- Çukurova University
- Flanders Research Institute for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food
- Wageningen University
- Anchor Lab
- Wageningen Research
- Aqua Maritime
- ASSIST Software
- Data Fish Technology Solutions
- University of East Anglia
- Centre for Environment Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (CEFAS)
- University of St. Andrews
