Have you seen the latest documentary “SEASPIRACY” on Netflix? If you did not watch it, you probably need to see it if you have any intention of saving the world. From the moment I saw it which is few days ago, I have been inspired to propose some kind of solution that will save the ocean by proposing some sort of “sustainable” fishing mechanism without disrupting the fish industry.

It is more than enough to understand the problem of the fishing industry after watching the documentary. The main problem as I perceived it is the fact that whether a fishing ship is legal or illegal, we really do not know how many fish a certain boat has collected. This is because there is no reliable and feasible means to collect the data on the number of fish VS type of fish collected for all fishery boats. The only limitation a certain fishing boat has is its weight carrying capacity: the larger the boat the more it can carry.

For earth day I would like to start a new approach to solve the overfishing problem by proposing a new port system entitled “Anteneh’s overfishing shield.”

Solution
This project is about using the very limitation fishing boat has to control the amount of fish it transport per trip to control overfishing. This limitation is the weight carrying capacity of boats. Since we cannot get aboard every fishing ship to count how many fish it has collected each trip we measure the weight of each fishing ships when it is on dock as it floats, subtract the standard weight of the ship based on the type of the ship considering equipment and number of onboard peoples and find the total weight of the fish it has captured. This way we can fine boats which carry fish more than standard ratio set by law and regulation of the ship size to fish weight ratio. This will help us enforce “sustainable” fish consumption set by international law. The weight measuring technique of a floating boat can be done by water volume change multiplied by density of water. The determination of volume change of the water can be achieved by a “float through” tanker on the port where fishing ship floats on some large tank before fishing and after fishing to compare the data just like drive through vehicle scale.

For more information please visit https://hackaday.io/project/179135-antenehs-overfishing-shield