Azorean company develops sensors to prevent loss of buoys with fishing gear in the Azores

An Azorean company based at TERINOV (Terceira Island Science and Technology Park) is leading an international project that will allow fishing boats in the Azores, at a low cost, to implant localisation sensors in buoys and fishing gear placed at sea. The aim is, firstly, to reduce the economic impact that these losses represent for these professionals and, secondly, to safeguard the environment, since the vast majority of them are made of plastic material. Bearing in mind that approximately 10 per cent of fishing gear is reported lost in the Azores, SOLVIT‘s CEO, Nuno Cota, tells us how this project came about.

‘As we were already in Terinov, we began to realise that there were some needs and, after talking to other entities located there, namely the Air Centre, we detected that the fishermen needed this and that there was a concern related to the fact that a lot of fishing gear is lost. Fishing nets are lost due to mechanical problems, bad weather or even the theft of fishing gear,’ he explains. The maritime pollution caused by these materials also comes into the equation.