VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Indonesia is a maritime country where 2 thirds of its territory is oceans. Indonesia's marine wealth is very abundant. Various innovations have been made to facilitate the use of marine natural resources. One of them is a tool called ‘Smart Fish Detection Technology’ (SMAF-DT). This innovation created by students of the Sepuluh Nopember Institute of Technology -ITS is able to detect areas with lots of fish so that fishermen can spread nets in the area and get maximum results.

Two students, Rafly Zaka Rulloh and Figo Fergiyanto Dachlan obtained the idea from their observation of the fishermen's daily habit of fishing in the Madura Strait.  Both of tham see that the fish catch of fishermen in Bangkalan Regency is relatively small compared to fishermen in other areas so that it affects their economy. Rafly explained that this happened because of the small water coverage area. In addition, the fishing method still uses the old method by spreading nets in the middle of the sea based on instincts, memories and estimates of fishermen regarding their previous fishing history.

To overcome this problem, the team created innovation in the form of a tool that can help fishermen increase their catch. This tool called ‘SMAF-DT’ is installed at the bottom of the boat so that it can detect the presence of fish in the waters by using sensors.

The SMAF-DT utilizes sound waves and ultrasonic sensors to detect fish movements in the sea. Then, the tool is equipped with an alarm light on the boat as an indicator. When the boat starts sailing towards the sea, the sensor begins to detect the movement of the fish in the water. The SMAF-DT is also equipped with position tracking technology via GPS so that it can monitor vessel movements and record historical positions of previous catches. This device can be connected to a smartphone and can be used by people at home to monitor the position of the boat directly through the SMAF-DT application. In addition, the SMAF-DT application is also equipped with the main menu About Fish. This feature is useful for increasing the knowledge of fishermen about the types of fish and their contents.