PingMe helps you retrieve lost fishing gear

With PingMe^TM, Ocean Space Acoustics AS (OSAC) combine two important ideas: Sustainable and future oriented fishing and improved profitability for the fishers. By tagging fishing gear with transponders, lost gear can be retrieved quickly. This reduces the amount of plastic in the ocean and the equipment cost of the fishers.

Nominated for the 2022 Innovation Award

For the development of PingMe^TM, Ocean Space Acoustics AS have been nominated for this year’s Innovation Award, which is awarded during Nor-Fishing 2022. OSAC is founded by Tone Berg and Odd Trandem, in cooperation with Sintef.

— We are very proud to be nominated for such a prestigious award. Being nominated in this forum, for a product that combines sustainability and profitability for the fishers, is particularly inspiring, says Tone Berg, founder and inventor at OSAC.

Visit the stand: Ocean Space Acoustics AS are located at stand G-727, and at Nor-Fishing Digital during this year’s Nor-Fishing fair.

This is PingMe^TM

With PingMe^TM, fishers can detect, identify, and locate gear. The system consists of three parts: a transmitter/ receiver on the boat, transponders with a unique ID attached to the gear, and a cloud-based data platform.

— When a tagged transponder is “pinged”, the transponder analyses the signal. If the signal comes from a PingMe^TM-transmitter, the transponder returns its ID and information about its surroundings (pressure and temperature) to the boat. Based on a few “pings”, the transponder’s position is calculated and displayed on chart plotters, Tone explains.

After processing, all the information is sent to the cloud service for storage.

— The cloud service is connected to an app, which presents data for different types of users. What type of information is displayed, depends on who is requesting it. For example, a shipowner can get real-time information about the sailing route, equipment, and position for all his boats. He can also get the history and status of his equipment tagged with PingMe^TM-transponders – including position and whether the equipment is at sea or on deck.

Working together to increase information about gear

Because all boats with a PingMe^TM-sender/receiver can detect any PingMe^TM-transponder, the information from all tagged transponders can benefit all PingMe^TM users.

— You can prevent gear conflicts and propeller problems, and recover other peoples lost gear. In addition, the transponders collect information about depth and temperature where fishing took place, which may be of interest to fishers, public management, or marine scientists, says Tone.

She also points out that the gear owner himself decides whether transponders are displayed on other people’s chart plotters. The app only gives users access to their own data.

Prevents more marine plastic

One of the biggest advantages of PingMe^TM is that fishers will spend far less time trying to find equipment that gets lost – whether it tears away from the buoy or disappears in some other way.

— In the PingMe^TM-app, fishers can register tagged gear as lost. Every time the cloud service receives a “ping”, it checks whether the detected transponder has been reported missing. If the transponder is lost, the owner will receive a message with the gears position data. In this way, we can help fishers find and retrieve lost equipment faster, says Tone.

Several major contributors, including the EU, are currently carrying out projects aimed at collecting marine plastic. However, little is being done to reduce the introduction of more plastic into the oceans.

— The goal is to give fishers better control over their gear. Even if you know where the equipment was placed, you don’t always know where it ends up – but PingMe^TM does, assures Tone.

The jury’s conclusion

Secretary of the jury for the 2022 Innovation Award, Odd Berg, is a big supporter of the PingMe^TM-system:

— Ghost fishing and marine plastic are major problems, for which the fishing industry must take its share of blame and responsibility. Lines, nets, traps, and other equipment that are lost and keep fishing are harmful – for the fish, the sustainability and for the fisher’s finances. We think PingMe^TM is an excellent – and necessary – addition to the industry, because it takes two of our biggest problems seriously.

— We need product developers capable of thinking about sustainability, social responsibility, and profitability at the same time – and combine these important thoughts into functioning solutions. We look forward to following OSAC further and wish them the best of luck in the future, concludes Odd Berg.

Stand G-727: See PingMe^TM in action

Ocean Space Acoustics AS are located at stand G-727 during this year’s Nor-Fishing exhibition. At the stand, you can see the PingMe^TM-system in action and ask questions about the innovative solution.

— We will demonstrate the system, so that you can see how gear and other information is displayed in chart plotters. In addition, we will display a video showing how to mount and dismount transponders on nets. We are excited to see the response, concludes Tone.