Starfish 4.0 is one of the 5 award winning projects as selected by the WestMED Initiative in November 2021.
The project is coordinated by Collecte Localisation Satellites (CLS) with two local partners: APC in Greece and ECR in Mauritania. STARFISH 4.0 is a 2-year project (2020-2021), funded by the European Commission’s European Maritime and Fisheries Fund as part of its Sustainable Blue Economy grant.
The project proposes new technologies for the safety of small-scale fishermen and sustainable marine resource management. The overall objective is to refine the product and services through user feedback and improve stakeholder engagement and the adoption of 4.0 technologies in a data-poor sector.
Small-scale fisheries play an important role in the European Union from a biological, economic and social perspective, amounting to 85% of all fishing vessels. But SSF are not currently monitored as large, industrial fishing vessels are; we do not know where they fish, nor how much, which creates significant challenges for sustainable resource management.
To address this issue, STARFISH 4.0 proposes the NEMO system: digital tools and technology designed for these fishermen. It includes an innovative, solar-powered VMS transponder with an IoT/ satellite/ GSM communications system, a Big Data software platform, and dedicated mobile applications.