Questions/Answers

The Fish Biomass Detector with the Internet of Things (IoT) System (PATRIOT) is designed to overcome two main problems experienced by Bendega (i.e. the traditional fishermen community) in the coastal area of ​​Badung Regency, which are poverty and digital divide. Most of the Bendega live below the poverty line because they barely get sufficient amounts of fish catch and daily income, as they still rely on traditional fishing methods that highly depend on natural conditions. As crucial as that, is the digital divide in the community which anyhow left the Bendega behind in the rapid technology advances. The PATRIOT is a helpful tool for the Bendega to access, to use, and to get benefit from digital technology for their living. The Bendega is now being encouraged and motivated to work like never before, as they could determine the optimum fishing location, route, and time of net spreading before sailing. During fishing, the PATRIOT tool set would show signs to the Bendega when the group of fish is passing through the water column. This advanced way of fishing by using IoT technology is proven to increase fish catches and to save fuel use. Thus, the Bendega would spend less time sailing and more time for their loved ones instead. The PATRIOT is a product that comes from a pure intention of the Badung Regency Government to improve the Bendega’s living standards. The tool set is user-friendly and is accessible by all Bendega, as they could get it for free from the government.

The implementation of PATRIOT technology is a breakthrough moment for the Badung Regency Government to improve the quality of our public service, specifically to the Bendega as the beneficiaries. The idea is basically providing the latest technology product that enables the Bendega to increase their income without burdening them with any complicated technique and utilization cost. As the Bendega gets benefits from PATRIOT, the government could develop a database from the activity reports that will be used for further service innovation for the community. This technology attempts to open greater access for the Bendega to the digital era.

The PATRIOT initiative is in line with the first SDG’s goal, which is “no poverty”, specifically indicator 1.2.1, that is shown by average income raise of 25.78 USD and thus has implication on reducing poverty. PATRIOT utilization helps fixing the stigma of fishing activity into a promising livelihood, and contributes to economic growth in rural-coastal areas. By that, PATRIOT initiative also supports the eighth SDG’s goal, which is “decent work and economic growth”, indicator 8.2.1, that is showed by an increase in the work participation by 0.09% in 2020. PATRIOT also helps achieve the fifth SDG’s goal “gender equality” as this initiative opens greater access for women to be involved in economic activities in coastal areas, one of which is by processing fish catches into chips. It is shown on the increase of the Gender Empowerment Index of Badung Regency, from 75.23 to 75.49 in 2019-2020 period. Furthermore, this innovation supports the tenth SDG’s as well, which is “reduced inequalities”, by reducing the socio-economic disparity in between rural and urban communities, especially in rural-coastal areas. It is shown in the lowering gini ratio from 0.324 to 0.317 in 2019-2020 period.

The PATRIOT utilization simultaneously helps achieving sustainability in socio-economic-environmental dimensions. As seen from the social dimension, this technology shortens the sailing time for the Bendega and thus they would have more time with their family. In economic terms, the PATRIOT helps reduce fuel cost and the tool is freely accessible as a technology product of Badung Regency Government. The PATRIOT is also designed to promote sustainable fishing practice, as the system is set to only be useful for detecting certain fish species in certain areas permitted by the local regulation.

The Indonesian Government in regency level tends to only focus on licensing and procurement service for fishing tools such as outboard motors and boats, as well as post-harvesting trainings. There were not any attempts focusing on better efficiency and effectivity in the fishing activity. In national level, we actually have the prototype of Potential Fishing Zone by the National Institute of Aeronautics and Space, but it is limited to fishermen with ≥10 GT boats which is too high for the Bendega’s standard. The Badung Regency Government builds a digital ecosystem for Bendega so they would quit relying on their instincts or conventional fishing tools to get a highly-fluctuated fish catch and income. Therefore, this innovation becomes an instrument for empowering the Bendega to work for their better life quality independently and sustainably. This technology has also been a useful government platform to see the daily challenges faced by the Bendega. The data and information collected by the system assists the government in identifying and evaluating various problems in fish catching and marketing. Thus, this technology becomes a sharing platform for the Bendega and the stakeholders to be able to collaborate in improving the economic growth in rural coastal areas.

The PATRIOT technology promotes the expansion of access, use, and benefit from digital technology to the Bendega. The utilization of this technology gradually creates the more efficient, well-identified, and well estimated fishing practice; and the risk of fishing would be easier to mitigate. Those efficiencies open up opportunities for everyone, men or women, to be involved in fishing activity because it would be less exhausting, money-spending, and time-consuming. The women in coastal areas would also be involved in improving the economic growth in coastal areas, such as by producing fish chips from the fishermen’s fish catch.

The main target group of the PATRIOT is the Bendega (i.e. the traditional fishermen community). Up until now the PATRIOT has reached 2,488 of 3,705 traditional fishermen (Bendega). They use <5 GT fishing boats with 15-30 HP engines, and conventional tools such as gillnets and fishing rods. The traditional fishing limits their daily fish catch in terms of quantity and variety. The utilization of PATRIOT technology has helped the Bendega by providing a real-time potential fishing ground information by species, as well as the optimum time and route for fishing. The provided information gives more effectivity in fishing and less fuel cost; from 20.92 USD to 4.88 USD–9.76 USD per fishing time. The technology utilization also allows the Bendega to increase their average catching from 70 kgs to 120 kg with the net income of 25.80 USD per fisherman for one fishing time.

The PATRIOT initiative is developed from the FishGo mobile application, which was initially built in 2017 and was presented at the Badung Innovation Festival, an annual event organized by the Badung Regency Research and Development Agency. The initial design of FishGo consisted of three main features to help Bendega in their fishing activities. In 2019, FishGo was awarded as one of the Top 45 Innovations in the Public Service Innovation Competition held by Indonesian Ministry of State Apparatus Utilization and Bureaucratic Reform. For the achievement, FishGo received the Regional Incentive Fund for further product development. In 2020, the development plans started to be implemented, starting from a Focus Group Discussion (FGD) involving the Bendega, stakeholders under the Badung Regency Government, and other parties. The FGD resulted a product development of FishGo, in the form of additional SOS/emergency feature for Bendega’s safety, and a fishfinder technology development which became the now-called PATRIOT. The development of PATRIOT has passed some collaborative researches involving the academic party and the Bendega as the beneficiaries, with stages of tools designing, field testing, tools calibration, and tools capability analysis. The PATRIOT tools were given freely as a government’s service to the Bendega to get the more efficient and effective fishing experiences. The government also held the monitoring and evaluation to identify any obstacles in the product development and to decide the solution. The monitoring is for ensuring the annual work achievement of the PATRIOT initiative, while the evaluation is for validating the tool reliability and the benefit of the utilization for Bendega’s higher income and living standards.

The obstacle that encountered during the product development were the low sensor accuracy in detecting depth, fish biomass, and the communication distance of the sonar signal receiver and the wave transmitter. To overcome the accuracy problem, several tool tests were taken in different water depths and conditions, such as in dock, fishing pond, and shore waters. For the tool communication distance, an antenna was added so the previous 32-meters distance could be extended to 376 meters. The other obstacle was the non-water-resistant outer casing of the tool. Several steps are still being done to overcome the casing problem.

The fish finder technology has been applied to large fishing vessels, but is rarely to small boats in Southeast Asia. In designing the PATRIOT tool, we adjusted the components to be more compact and concise, as it generally needs a big installation room and many components. The PATRIOT also integrates an Internet of Things (IoT)-based technology to the FishGo application and we managed to let the Bendega see the real-time visualization of the data recording on their smartphones. The PATRIOT had since pioneered the IoT application in Indonesia’s fishing activities, which is still strange to the local fishermen.

The PATRIOT innovation is inspired by an American IoT tool called Deeper. The tool uses inner sonar to predict water depth and fish position, and are commonly used for gillnets. The creation of PATRIOT was also inspired by a fishfinder technology that highly used in net casting process by Japan’s big vessels. The combination of those two technology concepts creates the originality and unique selling point of PATRIOT, that is the ability to detect fish biomass up to 40 meters in the water column. This technology is specifically designed for small-scaled utilization by the traditional fishermen known as Bendega.

The technology in PATRIOT comes from a combination of the well-known sonar and IoT. The Internet of Things (IoT) is a technology that connects the user with other tools through the internet. The PATRIOT tool combines those two (sonar and IoT) so that the sonar reflection which detects water depth and fish biomass could be read in real-time via Bendega's smartphone during fishing. The tool is also integrated to FishGo mobile application, with a dashboard to monitor the real-time data of Bendega’s total activities and catchings. This platform utilization is considered strategic to ensure the digital governance at regional level.

The PATRIOT initiative has not been replicated to any regions. Other than in Badung Regency, the utilization has been tested in Karangasem and Gianyar Regency in Bali Province, for the areas have similar potential fishing ground characteristics. However, there have not been any replication of the initiative in those areas. The running of PATRIOT and FishGo in an area always preceded by socialization, field survey on the coastal community, and on the fishing method chose by Bendega. The product testing aimed to compare the results of fishing activities using FishGo mobile application on different environmental characteristics, for mutual fish commodity in all Badung, Karangasem, and Gianyar Regency that is the skipjack tuna. The result of the product testing showed that this technology has a transferable and/or adaptable to other regions with similar characteristics.

It is highly possible to transfer or adapt the PATRIOT innovation to other regions and even other countries, as it uses remote sensing technology and oceanographic modelling based on the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) imagery obtained by the NASA satellite. The basic data for this modelling are the sea surface temperature and chlorophyll-a contained in the world’s sea, which specifically aimed for predicting the potential fishing ground. The replication of PATRIOT could be done after the area meets the requirements of a capable human resources in processing and analyzing remote sensing data; a sufficient knowledge of sea condition indicated by sea current, wave, temperature, and chlorophyll concentration; the potential fish species preferred by the local fishermen; and the fishermen characteristics. The accessibility that PATRIOT offers is expected to inspire the technology development for the traditional fishermen community.

In early stage, the PATRIOT development got fundings from Badung Regency Government through the Research and Development Agency as the innovator and facilitator for further IoT tool development. The total invested fund was 113,020.95 USD. The involved parties or human resources were the academic experts from Udayana University who are in charge of designing the casing, sensors and coding for PATRIOT; and the traditional fishermen groups as the potential users. The Research and Development Agency also collaborated with the Badung Regency Department of Fisheries.

The utilization of PATRIOT would be sustainable as it has the support and commitment in financial and institutional terms. The development fund is derived from the local government budget, showing a strong commitment from Badung Regency Government to improve the living standards of Bendega as a part of its regional development. The PATRIOT tool has also been strengthened by several local regulations and has been registered to the Indonesian Ministry of Law and Human Rights for its Intellectual Property Rights (IPR). Thus, this technology has a legal protection and would certainly benefit the region when mass produced in the future.

Yes

Internally, the Badung Research and Development Agency conducts annual evaluations with the expert team from Udayana University. The field evaluation usually involves the Bendega to get detailed information about the product utilization. Externally, the PATRIOT has been evaluated by the multi-sectors expert team organized by the Indonesian Ministry of State Apparatus Utilization and Bureaucratic Reform in the 2019 and 2021 Public Service Innovation Competition. The product was strictly evaluated based on scientific and practical approach. It resulted in the award of the Top 45 and Top 5 innovations, leading to us representing Indonesia at the 2020 and 2021 UNPSA.

The evaluation indicators are: (1) the quantitative data of increasing fish catch and decreasing fuel use which then explained by statistical analysis method to measure the impact of PATRIOT tools in improving the Bendega’s income; and (2) the qualitative data of the utilization impacts to the economic growth in education, financial, and social status as well as the service quality from the community’s perspective as references for further PATRIOT development.

The evaluation result shows an increase in fish catches from 70 kgs to 120 kgs, especially for sardines, striped bonito, and skipjack tuna. The net casting process is proven to be easier as PATRIOT could detect fish biomass, and the fuel consumption could be reduced. The quantitative result has met the initially-set standard, and thus the PATRIOT innovation greatly impacts the upgrading of traditional fishing and the Bendega’s living standards. The qualitative indicators show a higher awareness of human development as seen from the quality of education, technology use, and financial management. The result also shows satisfaction from Bendega as the beneficiaries of the service of internet access, potential fishing locations, and other essential information. Despite the good feedbacks, there must still be an enhanced work on the airtightness of the tool by finding out the most compatible casing material. The mobile application also needs additional feature of market access and pricing for fish catching.

Several parties have stated and delivered their support for PATRIOT innovation in both the development and the refinement process, through a vertical and horizontal collaboration. A vertical collaboration involves the government, including the local departments, the Regional House of Representatives, and the government of villages and urban villages. The central government supports financially on the designing, planning, and research of the PATRIOT product through the Regional Incentive Fund granted by the Indonesian Ministry of State Apparatus Utilization and Bureaucratic Reform. Meanwhile, the horizontal collaboration involves those who contributed in development stages: the traditional fishermen groups (Bendega), the Badung Regency Government, and the academic team from Udayana University.

Since its initial development, this initiative had been oriented towards the collaboration and inclusion with stakeholders to empower the Bendega. The Bendega as potential users had been involved in planning, implementation, and evaluation stages to ensure the built technology was user-friendly and met their needs. The Badung Regency Government collaborates with university and other parties for building the database and developing the technology. The government also collaborates with cooperative agencies and the micro and small businesses (MSB) to market the increasing fish supply impacted by this technology utilization. On the evaluation stage, the developed features and communication mechanism aimed to receive feedbacks from the users, so that the system would further be developed based on the user experiences. Several government agencies and experts has been actively involved in the evaluation, through competition events to receive constructive input regarding to this technology improvement. Financial institution such as banks has also taken part in the development of this innovation.

The valuable lesson from this initiative is that the technology could change rapidly, but human habits, culture, and mindset could not. The FishGo technology—now PATRIOT—contains advanced features, but it is still just a tool that would only be useful if the Bendega as users are aware of the shift to a digital era and are willing to adapt to it. On the early stage of this technology presentations, it was not easily accepted, let alone adopted, as every technology application requires changes of habit. After conducting lots of field works, and the product were speaking for itself in terms of its benefit in fishing, the community started to open up and believe that a change into digitalization is indeed essential. Therefore, a simultaneous effort in technology development and persuasive communication to the community must be done for the sustainable utilization of PATRIOT. This is a grand gesture of commitment from the Badung Regency Government to protect and preserve the local wisdom of Bendega based on the Regional Regulation of Badung Regency Number 6 of 2019 concerning on The Protection and Preservation of Bendega. Number 6 in the year 2019 concerning the Protection and Preservation of the Bendega.