Introducing Fishface and use of Chain Zy Mutually Distributed Ledger (aka Blockchain)

Modus vivendi’s Fishface works with fishing industry partners who are grappling with increasing regulation such as for food safety, an EU ban on discarding fish, and creating added producer/consumer value for freshly caught fish.

There is a move to Fully Documented Fisheries (FDF) that shift practice from broad assertions to vessel-specific evidence. However, this currently costs around $500 per vessel day. Fishface has recently completed an operational trial for small day boats in the UK using off-the-shelf, GPS-enabled consumer video cameras and software that can bring the cost down to $50 per day.

Fishface also links this video and GPS data to a supply chain based on a mutually distributed ledger (MDL). Fishface  uses Z/Yen Groups’s time-stamping MDL MetroGnomo, and ChainZy for wider MDL functions such as smart contracts. These break away from the limited capacity and additional running costs of cryptocurrency-based MDLs. Fishface also adds the data to a training library to help computers learn to count, identify and measure fish, bringing costs down still further.

The Fishface trials already identify species in nets, and monitor aspects such as location, catch rate, discards, bycatch and handling. Without such documentation we can’t credibly know how to support the best fisheries and encourage the rest. Hopefully progress can now be faster than when The Economist first reported, in 2001, Z/Yen’s work on the potential for better data and better options (Fishy maths , August 16th).

Dr. Malcolm MacGarvin, modus vivendi, Glenlivet

Prof. Michael Mainelli, Z/Yen Group, London

Dr. Sarah Jones, Clarity Coalition, Buenos Aires

Caroline Bennett, Sole of Discretion, Plymouth