Client: The Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) is the federal institution responsible for safeguarding Canada’s waters and managing fishery and ocean resources. They help ensure healthy and sustainable aquatic ecosystems through habitat protection and sound science. The Department needed a gear-recovery reporting system that would work online and offline.
Project summary: In Canada, it is mandatory for all commercial harvesters to report their lost fishing gear to DFO. Lost gear reporting helps the Department and partners locate and remove lost gear from Canadian waters and, in many cases, return the gear to its rightful owner. This creates cleaner waterways and helps harvesters recuperate their investment in expensive gear. The reporting challenge for harvesters is that they are often at sea where there is no wifi or cellular connection. Historically, harvesters were forced to manually track the location and details of their gear, and then enter it on the DFO site once they were off the boat. This proved to be time consuming and cumbersome.