SafetyNet Technologies Casts a Wide Net in the Fishing Industry: From the UK to Mississippi
Hailing all the way from the United Kingdom, SafetyNet Technologies was excited about the opportunities offered by the Gulf Blue Navigator program on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. CEO of SafetyNet - Dan Watson - started the company in his final year project while studying product design engineering in Glasgow. Specializing in an impressive assembly of devices designed to perfect precision fishing, SafetyNet wasted no time in throwing out a line and applying to the program.
Already experienced in other fisheries, SafetyNet saw Mississippi’s shrimping industry as a potential market for them to tackle. The state’s coastline may be small, but it is certainly not lacking. Companies like SafetyNet and their interest in the Mississippi Gulf Coast ensure the area’s success as a cornerstone in the emerging blue economy.
We caught up with Watson about SafetyNet’s journey prior to and during the Gulf Blue Navigator program.
SeaAhead: What made you decide to produce devices to aid fishermen?
Watson: I was reading a newspaper article about fisheries when I was back in university and was inspired to learn more about the space. I took an interest in using mechanical and electronic engineering to try and solve problems. Over time, it evolved into what we are doing today, which is the precision machine technologies that can be cameras or sensors or lights and whatever new problems we find along the way.
SeaAhead: Very interesting. SafetyNet Technologies' vision is “a world where oceans and people thrive together.” How is SafetyNet making this possible?
Watson: For us, it's all about precision fishing. Humans are destroying the ocean, so how do we create a more sustainable partnership? Humanity benefits from the ocean’s resources, but how do we get those resources, so we don't leave the ocean worse than we found it? Our mission as a company is to make tools that enable that to happen with the fishing sector and for us to make sure that balance is maintained. That’s the impact part of what we're doing.
SafetyNet’s most recent product, CatchCam.
SeaAhead: Great. SafetyNet’s website shows three available products: Enki, CatchCam, and Pisces. Can you briefly describe these products and the benefits they offer fishermen?
Watson: Sure. The first product we made was Pisces. It's this light-emitting device for attracting and repelling different types of species of fish. This allows fishermen to be more selective by letting non-target species escape so they can capture their target species; effectively reducing bycatch.
We've also got the CatchCam, which is our latest product. It is an underwater camera for fishing. It allows fishing crews to look inside their fishing gear to see what happens like what species arrived, what's working, and what's not. That was what we were doing today, we were at sea putting CatchCam gear out. A lot of people are fishing without being able to see, so it’s hard for them to know what methods and techniques are making a difference.
The third product is Enki. That's a sensor system, which has five or six different types of sensors in it. We're capturing the oceanographic data alongside fishing data and then turning it into a visual dashboard for fishing crews. So, this all ties in with our goal of observing, measuring, and then responding with different technology.
SeaAhead: SafetyNet’s website has a case study for each of these products. One of those studies resulted in a 77% reduction in undersized haddock using Pisces. How are Pisces and other products decreasing or eliminating fish bycatch and undersized catch?
Watson: To paraphrase, it's the measured response. We observe what's going on with the camera. We measure the different characteristics of the fishing agent and then we respond with different devices. Once you’ve identified a problem, you can use those items to try and fix it. So that's the order of things that we're looking at.
SeaAhead: Research seems to be a crucial part of SafetyNet’s business operations based on your case studies and trials. During these trials, did you encounter surprising feedback?
Watson: Yes, Pisces in particular. People have various theories about which species are attracted [to these underwater LED lights}. We go into these trials with a hypothesis of cause and effect, and sometimes you get some outcomes you didn't expect. Take gill nets for instance, if you add green lights, turtles are very reactive to that and can very easily avoid the gill net. It makes a big difference in the amount of bycatch.
We also get feedback from customers and partners. Sometimes we finish a design that we think is awesome and super intuitive, but then we take it out to sea, and it completely fails. Or we get user feedback that actually makes my life more difficult. So as a company, you're always hearing different things, and you have to respond to the knowledge you get back from people. While it's sometimes surprising, it's almost always useful.
SeaAhead: It sounds like all feedback is welcome, whether it's good or bad.
Watson: Exactly. Because in the end, it helps us refine the product and make it useful. So, it's always well received.
SeaAhead: What industries or areas are currently using SafetyNet’s products?
Watson: For us, it's mainly the fishing sector. But in the future, we're looking at things like aquaculture, seaweed farming, and industries where similar technologies could be useful, just in a slightly different way.
SeaAhead: Are there any upcoming technological advances or research opportunities that you are excited about?
Watson: CatchCam is now ready and as more and more of them go out to different customers, we’re excited to see the videos that they produce and what we can learn from them. We hope that over time we can use those videos to help inform our fisheries about possible improvements and what they can expect to see through the CatchCam. That to us is really exciting because it's sharing information to better everyone in the fishery.
SeaAhead: Shifting gears now. Why did you apply for the Gulf Blue Navigator program?
Watson: Our big interest was in exploring the Gulf of Mexico’s fisheries market. There's a shrimp fishery. in the past Pisces has had a lot of success in that environment because you're missing the opportunity to separate fish out from bones, which is a big issue. We also wanted to take our camera out there to see if there was any interest from locals. There are also a bunch of other regional partners in that program like the university, the technical folks, and the startups that are involved as well. It was a cool way to meet other startups at a similar stage and those further ahead to get inspiration.
SeaAhead: What experience with the Gulf Blue Navigator has stuck most with you?
Watson: I think our tour of N-Vision. We went to visit and got to see how they had taken the company from the starting point and all the strategies they had employed to grow. The team was a cool mix of technical experts with cool projects backed up by policy experts and grant writers. It was really nice to see a company working in the ocean space, doing impactful work in sustainability and at scale.
Want to learn more about SafetyNet Technologies? Visit their website.