ts 3 a.m. in the morning and Ernest Gutierrez Jr. and his brother Derek, third generation fishermen from the island of St. Thomas, are sorting their catch. With only a few hours left before morning customers arrive, they still have their catch report to fill out a lengthy paper form required by the Division of Fish and Wildlife used for fisheries management. Once a week, Ernest and Derek carve out time to drive over to the east end of the island to deliver their stack of finished reports
Eliminating Paper-Based Reporting
This backdrop of paperwork and livelihoods underscores the ongoing competition for ocean and marine resourcesincluding the increasing overlap of diversified demands of food and economic security- placing relentless pressure on ocean resources. Fishermen and fisheries alike recognize that real-to-near-time data is the path for finding common ground. At the heart of this transformation, however, is the ability to eliminate paper-based data collection an often inaccurate and labor-intensive process. For the Gutierrez brothers, long-standing manual data collection and time-consuming weekly report delivery is shifting in favor of new technologies, policy changes and an enriched landscape of information management.
Emerging technologies like Digital Deck create a level playing field between fisherman and resource management providers. Mobile apps driven by open source software create a platform that digitizes time consuming catch reports, seamlessly uploading valuable information on fish harvests, species patterns, ocean demographics, and behavioral information creating opportunities to link various stakeholders together and drive everything from improved ocean conservation to resource management to innovation.
With Digital Deck, data can flow seamlessly from the Guiterrez’ boat after their harvest to fisheries’ management databases, delivering aggregated data to the agencies for informed decision making, and providing secure proprietary data back to the brothers through their mobile devices.
For the first time, fishermen like the Gutierrez brothers, and their local fisheries and resource managers can control the flow of data with new technology, driving innovation, services, and conservation. Striking a balance between economic opportunity and resource management boils down to the timely use of data, a key factor missing with the collection and processing of paper catch reports
Technologies like Digital Deck are quickly becoming the foundation for equitable resource management decision-making, ensuring all stakeholders from sea to shore- have an opportunity to leverage information and data in new, unchartered ways. In many instances, fishermen now have easy access to the same data used in determining fisheries management decisions. Their perspective and in-the-field insights contribute to the decision-making forum, providing a layer of feedback not previously leveraged in the resource management process.
Adopting best practices from industries adept at data extraction and applying them to ocean and marine resources can create a common architecture, helping drive data standards and integration points as the industry begins to evolve its relationship to data.
This emerging demand for smart hardware controls and continuous technological improvements demonstrates how ocean and marine resource management can operationalize a data-driven environment for deeper, and more sustained impact.
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