The Fishing Consultant and Fleet Activities Optimiser can improve fishing and the management of fishing operations.

The Fishing Consultant is a tool that can predict future catch rates for a particular species in a specified fishing area during certain environmental conditions. The consultant uses vessel catch rate, as well as any other information available about the conditions during which each recorded catch occurred, to produce a density distribution, indicating which areas are most likely to have the densest population of fish. Specifically, the Fishing Consultant works by using a mathematical prediction model which is trained using historical data. The trained model can then predict future catch rates under conditions specified by the user. The predictive accuracy of the model depends, of course, on the quality and quantity of data available. The predicted catch rates can be visualized on a GIS component that provides a color-coded predicted catch rate grid for each fishing area specified by the user. Please click on the images for expanded view.

Olfish’s Fleet Activities Optimiser is a utility which has been designed to aid fishing managers in scheduling ship time optimally in order to meet certain objectives. The program can manage a fleet of numerous vessels, fishing in multiple areas, for several species of fish.

The scheduling mechanism can be set to achieve any of the following tasks:

• Land a specified tonnage of the primary target species at the minimum possible cost.
• Land a specified tonnage of the primary target species in the shortest possible time
• Land the maximum possible catch of the primary target species in a specified time period.
• Maximize the value of the catch (all species) in a specified time period.
• Land the primary target species at minimum cost, in order to maintain stock for processing at a specified daily rate without exceeding specified stock limits.

In determining a scheduling solution, the program uses input information with regard to vessel specifications, the distance from port to each fishing area, the expected catch rate in each area for each species (which may be generated using the Olfish Fishing Consultant which is packaged with the Fleet Optimiser), and the specified constraints. The output of the program is a visual representation of a number of possible fleet schedules, each of which is close to the optimal solution, but which may differ with respect to bycatch landings etc, allowing the user to choose the most appropriate solution for his/her needs.

To learn more about these utilities or to see a demonstration, please contact Heidi Henninger at 603-828-5668 or heidi@offshorelobster.org. You can also download our latest brochure here.