Afloat

Prevent and Cure Ghost Gear Problems

Comment 1

Inspiration

Healthy oceans and productive fisheries are crucial for the future of our planet, the survival of our species, and the prosperity of our country. Effective management of fisheries as well as commercial fishing practices is critical for the long-term conservation of our oceans.. Our inspiration for this project came from the problem 5 and 6 of the State Departments Fishackathon. Our product will help fishermen as well as the general public to protect their underwater assets as well as the environment.

What it does

Afloat provides two products-

The BuoyTag-Customers will place the BuoyTag on any item they wish to track. The Tag's locations will be uploaded and tracked using the Afloat Mobile or Web app. A BuoyTag's location can also be tracked using zigbees with a 2 mile radius.

Afloat Mobile/Web app-The app allows users to track their own traps and locations using GPS tags, as well as allowing users to report the location and details of abandoned nets and traps.

How we built it

We wanted to offer the user a good experience with the hardware as well as the software. So we used the particle photon microprocessor and attached it to a circuit board which is placed inside a waterproof holder, which is then placed on top of a trap buoy or in a net.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are proud of our prototype because of the extent of the integrations. Also we were able to integrate with the famous IoT hub website of IFTTT, which integrated our microprocessor to autonomous services like Text Messaging, Social Media, and even to other smart devices.

Special Thanks to

-Dallas Makerspace -Texas A&M University Galveston, Marine Fisheries -Code Authority Dallas -UNT Innovation Greenhouse -Earth Day Texas-EDTx2016

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Updates

posted an update —

It feels good to be a part of something big, and to provide solutions for our great planet. Just received this in my email: "Hi Saamer,

I saw on the Fishackathon site that you and your team came in first place in the Dallas Fishackathon. Congratulation! I wish you the best of luck at the final event!

Your app/solution for addressing ghost gear sounds really promising and my colleague in the US, Elizabeth Hogan, would like to speak to you and/or your teammates about it. I’ve copied her on this email so you can be in touch directly. Hope that’s okay!

Thanks so much, ____"

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posted an update —

Posted all our code onto Github. We have multiple aspects to our project- 1) BuoyTag-Hardware device used to keep track of fishing gear in the ocean. 2) iPhone App-Users can manually add traps they lay and can also report ghost gear they see. 3) Website-Sailors that don't have the app will be able to simply go to the website & navigate around the points on the map. 4) Server side-Public Access to ghost gear raw data for environmental analysis.

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