Xoán Martínez (CEO of Kaleido, Ideas & Logistics) kicked off this talk together with Jorge Vello Román, director of sales, logistics and management control for Grupo Pescapuerta, and explained what 'Fishing Tech' consists of, and how it’s focused on developing pilots between 'star-ups' around the world with disruptive technology, and intends "to revolutionise the fishing industry". The final objective is to acquire the developed technology or take part in the 'start-up', in order to implement it in processes for the companies involved.
How does this process work? Xoán Martínez starts by explaining that the first thing he does is listen "to the wish list that companies send us", in which they tell us their different types of needs or challenges that they are looking to overcome in their work. We then start to look for technological solutions and multisectoral talent to find the necessary solutions. Once we’ve found them, we need to get the main actors involved, test the technology and show the results in an event before the launch.
From Percapuerta, Jorge Vello Román highlights the path taken by Kaleido, which has led them to move from traditional ‘in-house’ innovation to innovation in an ecosystem in which the opportunities are exponential; from innovating to solve problems to anticipating the changes or from being alone to collaborating with experts in disruptive technologies from around the world.
LED light to reduce bycatch
An important example of the results from this programme, part of Pescapuerta’s work in sustainable fishing, is the case of LED intelligent lights to reduce 'bycatch', adaptable to each species and to each type of fishing. These are electronic devices tested for the marine environment that after studying each species emit a light that varies in frequency, intensity and colour, attracting some species and repelling others.
For its part, coming from the wine sector, the company has also put in motion a solution to avoid the colour black of giant prawns and gain ground with regard to natural looking products. It’s all about a natural product, coming from biotechnology, used as a preservative, eliminating the use of sulphates, to slow down melanosis in giant prawns.
What have we learned along the way?
"Fishing Tech" is in its third edition and has eight partners in the sector. According to Xoán Martínez, in order to correctly develop innovation processes, you need to speak directly to the project heads, obtain realistic information flows, correctly manage expectations and align motivations and objectives. And it is very important, in a mature sector that works well like fishing, to innovate and to begin a process that might not work, to understand it and take risks. Likewise, efficient information flows allow for innovation to be accelerated, and even to detect new and unforeseen solutions.
All this should go through the filter of a prior economic study, that helps to avoid many surprises, and to face this you require motivation, enthusiasm and a little bit of madness. That’s to say: you need to believe in it.
Sails on fishing boats and oxygenation of bacteria
Finally, Jorge Vello Román and Xoán Martínez have revised two other projects, one implementing and another in the development phase. On the one hand, he revealed that, in two weeks, in a Peruvian shipbuilder they are going to install a system of retractable sails on a longline vessel. The objective is to optimise by 30% fuel consumption during the journey. On the other hand, from a plan developed at the MIT on oxygenation: Question of trust, bacteria to disinfect operating theatres, a few months ago this technology was used on fish production lines. There are currently four production lines in Spain with this technology.