SBIR-STTR Award

Climate change impacts on Alaskan waters have created challenges for both fisheries ecosystems as well as the operational safety of mariners in the region, necessitating more accurate weather and ocean condition forecasts. Blue Ocean Gear will demonstrate the application of innovative Smart Buoy devices on fishing gear to capture and transmit data on sea surface temperature and other key ocean conditions in the Bering Sea. The use of fishing gear-based sensors will provide regional meteorologists with more localized data points than currently available, regardless of weather conditions, improving forecast accuracy using fishing gear in exactly the areas where the information is needed most. Blue Ocean Gear’s Smart Buoy is equipped with GPS tracking and other ocean condition sensors and transmits data to a cloud-based database, capable of conveying that information to either a mobile or desktop app. The integrated system is affordable, reliable, and compatible with any fixed-gear configuration. This includes traps, nets, longlines, and aquaculture arrays, all of which are utilized in open Alaskan waters across an area of over 500,000 square miles. This proposal will develop and evaluate a more ruggedized design with increased depth and impact performance as well as the addition of key ocean condition sensors.

As global efforts toward ocean health have gained momentum, it is critical to generate high quality ocean data for industries that operate and/or manage ocean resources. Blue Ocean Gear has demonstrated how Smart Buoys equipped with sensors can be useful to fisheries by tracking gear and providing enhanced marine condition awareness. Building on Phase I efforts, this project will highlight the opportunistic use of fishing gear already out on the water to provide relevant data for adjacent industries. Blue Ocean Gear’s combination of hardware and data will result in a powerful means of obtaining better insights to ocean conditions in high spatial granularity for offshore regions. The proposed project will bring to realization the features required for a low-cost, rugged, sensor-rich Data Buoy. Deployments will demonstrate the value of buoy data from fishing gear in Alaska and/or the Gulf of Mexico for use with meteorologists and offshore wind development. The resulting data products will demonstrate the applicability of these devices for increased markets. The overall outcome will be to bring buoy-generated data into a new realm, where fishing gear can be used to generate high quality data for ocean monitoring and health, and support of the responsible operation of marine industries.