Development of a ubiquitous GIS plotter utilizing mobile facilities for fishery industries

To date, the authors of this report have carried out estimations of initial stock size and catch per unit effort (CPUE) calculations in real time by collecting positional information and catch information from small fishing vessels using a sensor network system, and have facilitated fisherman-driven resource management in the coastal fishing industry by digitizing fisheries information. As the next step, we propose visualization of digitized fisheries information in the form of maps, and application of these maps to resource conservation and efficient fishing operations. The collection of various types of information, such as positional information and catch information, from small fishing vessels during operation has become possible due to the promotion of “IT fisheries.” Among the collected information, indicators such as water temperature that fishermen evaluate empirically from readings can be presented effectively using text and graphs. However, analysis results information, such as resource density and fishing rate, can be difficult to evaluate from numbers only, and the use of geographic information system (GIS) is considered to be effective. However, full-scale introduction of GIS is considered difficult in terms of both cost and skill. Therefore, we attempted to develop an iPad application that would allow fishermen to make use of the mapped information without having an awareness of GIS, and to introduce it in sea cucumber dredge net fishing, scallop dredge net fishing, and octopus pot fishing. This report presents the mobile GIS plotter developed for fishermen and some examples of its application.