Category: Sustainable Fisheries

Schmidt Marine Technology Partners Announces Recipients of $3.5 Million Global Sustainable Fisheries Initiative

Schmidt Marine Technology Partners, a program of the Schmidt Family Foundation, has awarded $3.5 million in grants to ten organizations and universities in seven countries for the development of new tools and innovations that will improve the sustainability of global fisheries, the program announced today.

“Tens of millions of jobs around the world depend on fisheries, and seafood is the primary protein source for 3 billion people,” said Wendy Schmidt, president and co-founder of the Schmidt Family Foundation. “The innovators chosen to receive these grants are ensuring that fishers and fisheries—and by extension all of us who rely on them—are secure and sustainable worldwide.”

Although more investors are funding ocean technology today than in years past, developers need considerable early-stage support to advance from an idea to wide use of a technology. The sustainable fisheries initiative—to which Schmidt Marine has committed $2 million in new funding, with partners Oceankind and Builders Initiative contributing the additional $1.5 million—aims to address that gap. 

“Increasing the sustainability of fisheries is challenging, but we think that both technology and philanthropy have important roles to play,” said Mark Schrope, director of Schmidt Marine Technology Partners. “We try to take a realistic approach by focusing on solutions that offer significant benefits not just for the environment, but also for the fishers themselves.” 

The 10 projects selected for grants—ranging from $150,000 to $500,000—seek to reduce bycatch, prevent illegal fishing, improve data collection on fisheries and fish populations, and increase the transparency of a fish’s journey from ocean to table. A team of seven expert advisers and additional tech reviewers from nonprofits, government, and industry helped evaluate proposals from a pool of 200 applications from 20 countries across six continents. Schmidt Marine selected grantees based on the environmental benefits of their proposed ideas, as well as their incorporation of sound fisheries science and management principles, and, where applicable, the practical appeal of the new technologies to fishers.

The funding recipients are:

  • Katchi Technologies (Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada): An alternative trawling net outfitted with a cable-mounted system that ensures the net stays open and is automatically controlled to prevent contact with the seafloor. The system also reduces drag by an estimated 30%, which in turn further reduces carbon emissions, fuel costs and bycatch while also increasing fisher safety. 
  • Trygg Mat Tracking (Oslo, Norway): Data-rich and easy-to-use software that enables countries to make quick and informed decisions on who can enter their ports and what to target in their inspections to stop illegal fish landings. 
  • Abalobi (Cape Town, South Africa): Development and deployment of software that integrates fishing data with processing plant data to provide ocean-to-market tracking that helps prevent illegal fishing and connects small businesses to larger markets.  
  • University of Haifa, work led by Roee Diamant, Ph.D. (Haifa, Israel) in partnership with the University of Zagreb and Rujer Boskevic Institute: A “swarm” of low-cost underwater autonomous robots that coordinate for better acoustic detection and size estimation of fish populations.  
  • Centro de Ciencas do Mar (Center for Marine Science) (Faro, Portugal): A redesigned fishing net, developed in partnership with fishers, that could reduce bycatch in certain squid and other fisheries by 40%, reducing net damage and protecting sensitive habitats. 
  • Cornell University, work led by Aaron Rice, Ph.D., (Ithaca, N.Y.) in partnership with Marc Dantzker, Ph.D. of Fisheye Acoustics (Arlington, Va.): A new autonomous audio/video technology that allows researchers to identify fish species based on the specific unique sounds they emit. With this information, inexpensive passive acoustic monitoring techniques will be better able to track and estimate fish populations for conservation, sustainability and research.
  • Allen Institute for AI (AI2), in association with Ocean Aero (Gulfport, Miss.) and ThayerMahan (Groton, Conn.): Tools to improve the detection, interdiction and prosecution of illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing activities. The integration of AI-driven detections from Skylight AI and a modified ThayerMahan acoustic system into the TRITON—an environmentally powered Autonomous Underwater and Surface Vehicle (AUSV)—promises a revolutionary approach to securing our oceans against IUU fishing. 
  • Arizona State University, work led by Jesse Senko, Ph.D., (Tempe, Ariz.): Low-cost lights, powered by solar energy, that easily hook on to fishing nets and reduce bycatch of threatened species including sea turtles and sharks.  
  • Wildaid (San Francisco, Calif.): An app that provides accurate fishing and vessel data to rangers to help them deter illegal fishing in marine areas and better protect marine wildlife and the coastal communities that depend on them.
  • Fishtek Marine (Devon, England): An evaluation of the effectiveness of multiple bycatch reduction tools such as a shark-repellent device for longline fishing. 

Fisheries Technology Advisers

Meet the seven fisheries experts who helped craft our Global Fisheries Technology Initiative and select this year’s recipients.

Noëlle Yochum, Ph.D. is a fisheries scientist with a focus on conservation engineering. She collaborates with the fishing industry (and other partners) to support sustainable, productive, and resilient fisheries. This includes evaluating fishing gear performance through innovative research on fish behavior and biology, gear design, and fishing technology with the aim of reducing bycatch, habitat-gear interactions, derelict gear, and fuel consumption.  

Alfredo Giron is the programme lead for the Ocean Action Agenda at the World Economic Forum. His work focuses on the use of data and technology to support ocean sustainability. Alfredo has experience in projects for ocean-systems management in Mexico, the U.S., Canada, Palau, the Solomon Islands and the European Union, as well as a series of projects at a global scale. He has led the creation of public-private partnerships to address ocean sustainability challenges, such as reducing illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing in seafood supply chains in international markets and enabling blue-carbon strategies in partnership with national governments. 

Laura F. Rodriguez, Ph.D. is the senior program officer of the Oceans Program at Builders Initiative. Laura is driven to incorporate local knowledge and science into decision making processes, transform public policies, and ensure market readiness for sustainable products as a means to create systemic changes in natural resource management systems. Previously, Laura served as Associate Vice President for Latin America and the Caribbean for the Environmental Defense Fund’s Oceans program. Born in Guadalajara, Mexico, Laura earned a doctoral degree in marine ecology from the University of California, Davis and a bachelor’s degree in marine biology from the University of New Hampshire.  

Mike Osmond, a former marine park ranger on the Great Barrier Reef, has been with World Wildlife Fund (WWF)-US since 2002. His work has included Marine Protected Areas (MPA) processes within the U.S., bycatch mitigation in Latin America, and coordinating the WWF International Smart Gear Competition, a global initiative designed to identify and reward innovative bycatch reduction ideas. He is currently working on fishery improvement projects, international sea turtle conservation initiatives, and bycatch mitigation. 

Kate Wing is the founder of Intertidal Agency, a design and strategy consulting firm for the ocean. She is a co-chair of the United Nations Ocean Decade Data Coordination Group and a Senior Advisor to the Friends of Ocean Action on data and information issues. She has held a wide array of positions in ocean policy and philanthropy and regularly serves as an advisor to conservation technology enterprises and accelerators.  

Christopher Cusack is a fisheries economist and technologist and leads Environmental Defense Fund’s Oceans Technology Solutions team. Chris has over twenty years’ experience working in and around fisheries from Alaska to Indonesia and currently leads EDF’s technology-focused projects addressing the world’s most pressing fisheries-related challenges.  

Richard Stavis, Founder of Stavis Consulting, LLC, is an internationally acknowledged seafood thought leader and innovator with over 35 years in the seafood community functioning in executive, purchasing, sales, and sustainability roles.  Over the last decade his primary focus has been understanding, advocating for and applying best practices in sustainability, traceability, and responsible labor practices within the seafood supply chain.  Richard is a Board Member of FishWise and a Trustee of Human Rights at Sea, and a founder and a member of the Sustainable Fisheries Partnership’s Squid IUU sourcing prevention working group. 

Schmidt Marine launches new $3.5 million global fisheries technology initiative

Schmidt Marine Technology Partners will offer up to $3.5 million in funding annually to entrepreneurs and others developing new technologies that increase the sustainability of fisheries around the world. The effort is also being funded by two anonymous philanthropic groups.

Tens of millions of jobs around the world are dependent on fisheries, and healthy fisheries are critical to the health of the world’s ocean and food security. “Fisheries challenges are often complex, and many of the greatest threats to the world’s fisheries are challenges of politics, human behavior, and information deficits,” said Mark Schrope, Schmidt Marine’s director, “But we believe that some of these challenges can and should be addressed through improved technologies.”

Background

Fishing, fisheries science, and fisheries conservation are rife with conflict, controversy, and complications. But fisheries can become more sustainable with new and improved tools, ranging from new types of fishing gear or gear improvements, to new methods of gathering fisheries-related data, to the application of existing tools in new ways. 

“Ocean technology is at a critical point. While in many ways ocean health is declining rapidly, current technological capabilities make it possible to envision—to a greater extent than ever before—new ways to enable substantial improvements,” said Schrope, “And there are numerous success stories that we can celebrate and learn from.”

The Initiative

In recent years, there has been a rise in ocean technology investors. But, whether in a university, non-profit, or for-profit, technology developers need considerable early-stage support to develop their concepts so that they reach the investment stage or otherwise make their technology widely available. This initiative will provide that initial support.

The massive scope of the work needed to improve the state of the world’s fisheries suggests that numerous new ideas and companies will need to develop and expand in the coming years. Schmidt Marine will commit $2 million in new funding for fisheries technologies per year, and its partners will contribute up to an additional $1.5 million.

Schmidt Marine funds groups at a variety of stages, but prioritizes support to projects in the earliest stages of development, when funding is most difficult to obtain. Schmidt Marine traditionally commits to fund a project for several years until it has reached financial stability through traditional investment or contracts and sales. Individual grants typically range from $100,000 to $500,000 per year, and to date the program has funded more than 60 technologies focused on ocean health.  

What We Are Looking For

While the initiative does not have a specific regional focus, Schmidt Marine is seeking technologies that have the potential to enable improvements in multiple regions, especially areas where management and monitoring resources are most limited. Selected projects will reflect a strong understanding of the political structures of target deployment regions. They should be well grounded in both the realities of fishing and fisheries science and management, and in the case of new gear or gear improvements, should offer benefits to fishermen that make adoption feasible. The initiative also encourages applications from individuals and groups who do not typically work on ocean issues, such as companies with technologies for other applications that offer potential in fisheries. University researchers, non-profit organizations, and for-profit companies, including commercial fishing groups, are all eligible to apply. 

Though other ideas will be considered, the primary focus will be on:

  • New or improved methods and tools for fisheries data collection, especially those enabling fisheries stock assessments. Of particular interest are technologies that offer the potential for low-cost, reliable, and efficient deployment even in remote areas.
  • Creative methods and new collaborations to substantially expand capabilities for analyzing fisheries data sets to increase the sustainability of fisheries through reduction of overfishing, prevention of illegal fishing, or creation of premium sustainable markets.
  • Fishing gear or gear modifications that reduce bycatch, derelict gear, and/or habitat destruction, or that increase fishermen safety or the survival rates of discarded catch. Such technologies should offer benefits to fishermen or other characteristics that open plausible paths for adoption.
  • Tools that enable improved fishing ground and protected area monitoring to prevent situations where good players are penalized and illegal players profit.

Rather than outline specific projects, Schmidt Marine’s goal is to connect with groups already working in these areas or on technologies that might be repurposed as solutions to fisheries problems. Members of an advisory panel and additional outside experts will review proposals. The ideas that will rank highest will be market-based solutions that are impressively creative but also economically viable, reflecting a clear understanding of the barriers to, and opportunities for, wide voluntary adoption.  

Details about how to apply for the new funding initiative are available at at our proposals portal. Initial applications are due by May 20, 2022. Applications are welcome from any country. Recipients of the funding will be announced in November 2022.  

For additional information please contact us at [email protected]

Schmidt Marine Technology Partners was established in 2015 as a program of The Schmidt Family Foundation to support scientists, engineers and entrepreneurs in developing technologies that restore ocean health. The Schmidt Family Foundation was established in 2006 by Eric and Wendy Schmidt to restore a balanced relationship between people and planet by partnering with communities around the world in working for renewable energy, resilient food systems, healthy oceans and the protection of human rights.

Schmidt Marine Technology Partners is part of the Eric and Wendy Schmidt Network that includesThe Schmidt Family Foundation, Schmidt Futures, 11th Hour Project,  Schmidt Ocean Institute , 11th Hour Racing and Remain Nantucket.

Video spotlight: Thylacine Biosciences

Every day, we encounter processed meat, filleted fish, milled lumber, and other plant and animal products that are nearly impossible to identify with the naked eye. Is that snapper we’re ordering at the restaurant actually snapper? Does that timber come from a sustainable source? Scientists answer these questions by identifying the unique “DNA barcode” lurking inside each species, but until now, such information was generally out of reach for the everyday people who could most benefit from it, from restaurant owners to port managers.

Thylacine Biosciences, a Schmidt Marine Technology Partners’ grantee, is changing that. They’re developing a handheld DNA barcode identification tool that allows anyone, anywhere, to find out if product in front of them is properly labeled or comes from a species they should be concerned about. Learn more about Thylacine Bioscience’s inexpensive, revolutionary technology by watching co-founder Paul Bunje speak at our 2019 Schmidt Marine Technology Showcase.