By Katharine (Kat) Leigh
My passion has been, and always will be, ocean conservation. Seafood is my focus. This has driven me to seek sustainable solutions for fisheries like kick-starting an innovative social venture: SmallScaleOA. This year SmallScaleOA (previously known as FishcoinOA) was selected from over 1,150 solutions as an MIT Solve Challenge finalist.
But what’s SmallScaleOA? SmallScaleOA is an initiative that leverages public blockchain technology to incentivize traceable and transparent seafood, as well as inclusive, low-cost ocean acidification (OA) research on a hyper-localized scale. That’s quite a mouthful…let me explain.
The “OA” in SmallScaleOA stands for “Ocean Acidification.” With oceans 30% more acidic now than they were 200 years ago, OA is expected to cost the world USD 1 trillion per year by the end of the century. OA threatens human food security, the loss of which can generate social disruption, migration, and refugee crises. We need adaptation and mitigation strategies, pronto. But identifying potential strategies requires data; data that is lacking. Research on OA is expensive, the Indo-Pacific is understudied, and coastal waters are poorly understood. Continuous, fine-scale data is sorely lacking too, since autonomous measurements come from just a few scattered buoys.
Enter SmallScaleOA. The initiative will equip small-scale Indonesian fishers with sensors. Just as a satellite roams the Earth collecting images, these fishers will roam the coastlines collecting OA data! The fishers’ mobile phones will provide needed complex computing power, enabling SmallScaleOA’s sensors to be small, cheap, and streamlined. And blockchain-based SmartContracts will ensure that the fishers receive rewards for the data uploaded. What’s a SmartContract? It’s a bit of code that (in the SmallScaleOA context) sets certain requirements for data-sharing.
One company is already setting up these types of SmartContracts: Fishcoin. A peer-to-peer network championed by parent company, Eachmile Technologies, Fishcoin allows independent industry stakeholders to harness the power of blockchain using a shared protocol so that data can be trusted, transparent, and secure. It does this via Fishcoin tokens, which are used to satisfy the data access requirements of its SmartContracts. Plus, Fishcoin tokens are not only valuable inside the blockchain, but outside it, too, since they can be converted into real-world goods (i.e. top-up credits on solar power systems or prepaid mobile plans). Paying for texting or electricity with seafood info? Heck yes!
SmallScaleOA, however, will look beyond just seafood data, incorporating information about the very environment affecting seafood production, starting with ocean chemistry data. Check out how SmallScaleOA could work with Fishcoin:
Ocean chemistry data is pretty cool. Combined with data from other sources like satellites, we can build insightful algorithms (no more laborious, contamination-prone water samples for alkalinity measurements!) that can feed into models, helping communities predict the impacts of natural and anthropogenic changes. And because of SmallScaleOA’s digitally-integrated data collection, we can even make near-real-time maps that depict fine-scale, dynamic coastal conditions.
SmallScaleOA will be the first direct incentivization of ocean research through blockchain. It will align the interests of researchers seeking environmental understanding with industry striving to mitigate supply chain risks. SmallScaleOA transforms the research process from disengaged and often exclusionary, to a mechanism that is accessible and connected to the communities from which data is sourced, and the management decisions based off of it.
Speaking of inclusion, SmallScaleOA would be impossible without the tireless efforts of other researchers and advocates, many of them women. I’ve been able to identify potential technologies, data uses, and cost-savings by digging through decades of previous studies, and consulting with experts in their respective fields. With so much more work to be done, collaboration is indispensable. So, this is a request for within and outside the WAN community: will YOU help me? Do YOU want to get involved, provide a creative idea for my data, or help SmallScaleOA put sensors in the water? If so, please get in touch. I’d love to hear from you!
Other articles in the Women’s Aquatic Network December series:
- A Woman, a Vision, a Network: The Rise of WAN in Washington and the Importance of Women in Marine and Coastal Affairs, By Katy Lackey
- From Wrecked Reefs to Ocean Optimism, By Dr. Nancy Knowlton
- Becoming a Miami Waterkeeper, By Dana Tricarico
- SmallScaleOA: A Win-Win for Academia, Industry, Community, and Conservation, By Katharine (Kat) Leigh
- Diving Dreams and Solo Travel, By Victoria Bell
- Why the Women Around You Are the Network You Need, By Dana Rollison
Katharine (Kat) Leigh is the Leader of SmallScaleOA. Kat has worked in both the non-profit and private sectors. Ultimately, her goal is to combine economics, marine ecology/biology, and a dash of technology in order to incentivize sustainability in Indonesian small-scale fisheries. She has been a WAN member since 2017, having joined after networking with current members and participating in the organization’s coastal clean-up event.
Kat has a B.S. in Biology with a concentration in Marine Biology from Cornell University. She also holds minors in Environment and Resource Economics and International Development. You can reach Kat at: kll86@cornell.edu.
Note: Views expressed in this article are the author’s own. They do not necessarily represent WAN or the author’s employer.
References
- Fishcoin. (2018). Fishcoin, A Blockchain Based Data Ecosystem For The Global Seafood Industry. Singapore. Retrieved from https://fishcoin.co/files/fishcoin.pdf
- Hoegh-Guldberg, O., Poloczanska, E. S., Skirving, W., & Dove, S. (2017). Coral Reef Ecosystems under Climate Change and Ocean Acidification. Frontiers in Marine Science. doi:https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2017.00158
- Henson, S. A., Beaulieu, C., & Lampitt, R. (2016). Observing climate change trends in ocean biogeochemistry: when and where. Global Change Biology, 22(4), 1561-1571. doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.13152
- Oceana. (2012). Ocean-Based Food Security Threatened on a High CO2 World, A Ranking of Nations’ Vulnerability to Climate Change and Ocean Acidification. District of Columbia. Retrieved from https://oceana.org/sites/default/files/reports/Ocean-Based_Food_Security_Threatened_in_a_High_CO2_World.pdfSecretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity. (2014). Global Biodiversity Outlook 4: A mid-term assessment of progress towards the implementation of the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020. Montreal: United Nations Environment Programme. Retrieved from https://www.cbd.int/gbo4/
- The Smithsonian. (2018, 9 4). Ocean Acidification. Retrieved from Ocean Portal: https://ocean.si.edu/ocean-life/invertebrates/ocean-acidification
- Yang, Y., Hansson, L., & Gattuso, J. P. (2016). Data compilation on the biological response to ocean acidification: an update. Earth System Science Data, 8(1), 79-87. doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-8-79-2016