Fishing solutions
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Smart solutions and sustainability are major issues facing every industry today. These challenges have inspired Vericatch, a technology provider, to empower the global fishing community.

The Vancouver company's flexible software solutions provide fisheries with data-driven decision-making on catch reporting and better fishery management.

Their affordable apps support many initiatives, from enhancing traceability through QR codes for Albacore Tuna in BC to providing catch reporting and catch data visualization tools to empower local spiny lobster fishery management in Belize and the Bahamas. It has also simplified catch reporting for rapid data collection in Chile's mackerel fisheries.

"By fishing smarter and adopting end-to-end seafood traceability, suppliers can increase trust, accuracy and value along the supply chain," said Julian Hawkins, head of the 15-strong company, a leading light in developing smart tools for large-scale catch reporting.

Vericatch
Vericatch

Their FisheriesApp is a highly flexible and affordable data collection platform that can help even the most complex fishery begin collecting data. It is utilized for Canadian ELOGS, Vericatch's own electronic logbook that simplifies catch reporting for Canadian fishermen. KnowYour.Fish, meanwhile, is a dynamic tool that helps businesses verify their sustainability claims while reducing unintentional purchases of illegal, unreported and unregulated catch and seafood linked with human rights and labour abuses.

Their products are designed to adapt to the unique requirements of various projects and species. Instead of creating one-off, custom fishery software for each project, its solutions can be tailored to meet the needs of fisheries anywhere in the world.

Combined with location, gear and other information, the tech enables communities to see if catching the same amount of fish and seafood is getting easier or harder. It is an initial step by

Vericatch to ensure livelihoods and sources of protein will be there in the long run.

Fishing
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"This continues to underpin everything we do today and shapes how we engage locally and internationally," said Mr Hawkins. "We continually innovate our sustainable business practices, and as agents of change, we help stakeholders strive to make better choices for people, planet, and profit."

Vericatch has also partnered organizations such as Ocean Wise, the Environmental Defence Fund (EDF), The Nature Conservancy (TNC), and the Global Dialogue on GDST. The FisheriesApp catch reporting software has helped to revolutionize Indonesia's blue swimming crab fishery.

Vericatch is also driven by the United Nations' 2030 sustainable development goals, one of which was SDG-14, "life under water". He added: "The oceans are not something most people see and think. It's been 'overlooked' by too many, even though millions of people rely on seafood to survive.

"How can oceans become more sustainable? The answer isn't simple, and whereas aquaculture has helped increase the production of seafood, it ignores the issue of wild capture fishing, which is still at least half of seafood harvesting. What can be done on wild capture begins with data."

The issue is driving the implementation and deployment to scale and putting Vericatch's tools that enable data collection into the hands of fishermen and fisheries managers globally.

Fishing boats
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"Scaling happens when regional leaders share the vision of a better tomorrow and leverage expertise from fisheries experts and businesses able to offer proven products at scale. We must ensure we can harvest actionable data to ensure the oceans remain a productive part of our world."

He added: "The fishing industry is a traditional industry and dislikes change. It is an increasingly regulated one to manage a finite source of fish stocks. Vericatch's solutions are designed to work the way the fishermen work, and we adjust the parameters based on their suggestions.

"This helps build trust. Fishermen can take the lead in responsibly managing their fisheries. Our apps operate just as well for single-person canoes to ocean-going trawlers."

Clients of Vericatch have spoken of their praise of its technology solutions. Fraser MacDonald of Goodfish Seafood, sharing his experience with the KnowYour.Fish software, said: "We want to make sure what we're doing is transparent and honest. Using the software to show where our seafood comes from proves through a third party that we're doing what we say we're doing and helps build consumer trust."

Bagus Santoso, an enumerator from Indonesia, said: "FisheriesApp made it easy and fast for me to input and submit Blue Swimming Crab data. The arrangement of the data form was more efficient than an Excel sheet."

Melissa Grandy, a Newfoundland enterprise owner, has found the Canadian ELOGS to be a game changer: "I have been recommending this program to everyone. The simplicity of getting it done at home in the evenings instead of at the wharf won me over."

To discover more about Vericatch: https://vericatch.com/