Why

Small scale subsistence fisheries are often depicted as disparate, disorganized and dysfunctional, and/or as intensely exploitive and environmentally destructive. Yet small scale fishers should rather be considered for their potential as resource stewards and small-scale entrepreneurs whose aggregate activities have intricate effects in local regional economies.
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The StaBlu app, that was initially funded as a pilot project by EU Innovation, supports the position that small scale fisheries are important. The app was designed under the auspices that the lives of small scale fisheries is significant and that their knowledge should be applied when building sustainable fisheries.  

Moreover Jenson (2007) illustrated that the adoption of mobile phones by fishermen and wholesalers was associated with a dramatic reduction in price dispersion, the complete elimination of waste and near-perfect adherence to the Law of One Price increasing both consumer and producer welfare.
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These results demonstrate that not only can mobile technologies such as StaBlu allow sales to becomes more sustainable as orders become more specific and targeted, it can also provide data on specific and targeted fish species that can be sustainably fished eventually guiding both the consumer’s and producer’s decision to choose more sustainable options. Furthermore, as opposed to top-down government regulations and policies, StaBlu presents a bottom up approach to managing fisheries while at the same time empowering fisher folk.  Fisher folk collect the data, earn a living, and become part of the process of building sustainability.

MVP — Most Viable Product

StaBlu is a mobile application that puts buyers of fish in touch with suppliers on a “real-time” basis. Information is critical for the functioning of markets. We’ve created the first version of the StaBlu app which has the most crucial features that aims to solve user’s main problems:

• Fish information. The app provides fish information such as type of fish, in which island it can be found, whether the fish can be caught or not (endangered species), seasonal fish.
• Mapping which fish and how much fish is being caught.
• Mapping the demand for fish from a buyers perspective.
• Mapping the demand for fish from a sellers perspective.
• Mapping active fishermen. For buyers to find them place an order and pick it up or have it delivered/ exported, creating the possibility for fisherman to work together.
• Exporting of fish from areas where a type of fish is frequently present relative to areas where a type of fish is scarce.
• Improvement and reinforcement of communication between buyer and seller. The buyer's demand is better understood and the fisherman goes fishing based on the demand. This in return prevents the waste of fish.
• fixed location that bring buyers and sellers together

The StaBlu app is a ready-to-use mobile app. Try it today!

Moving Forward

Due to the amount of initial funding, and as a pilot project, during this first phase of development, there were limits on what could be accomplished. As a pilot project our team has completed the basic components of the app which now represents an online marketplace.
While currently, StaBlu collects data, there are currently no built in features to read this data in a user-friendly manner to track information. At this point StaBlu requires additional funding to develop these data monitoring features. With the availability of more budget these features can easily be designed and built allowing aggregate data gathered by the mobile technology to be reported. If this feature is developed, fisher folk, buyers, and data monitoring officers will be in a position to use factual and moral suasion to recommend sustainable harvesting of fish and management of priority species.
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Want to be part of this movement? Please contact us for more information.