Who we worked with
DOC and Fisheries NZ
What we did together
GovTech Accelerator
Key skills
Applied innovation
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Thousands petition for greater seabird protection – ODT
The Antipodean Albatross population is critically endangered due to by-catch
mortality in international waters. Mitigation techniques are regulated and when used, they work, but we have no visibility or enforcement of commercial fishing vessel compliance.
How we did it
The GovTech accelerator helped the team by addressing 3 main areas:
Cost
Significantly reduced the cost of the RFP by an estimated $360,000 as Fisheries NZ knew exactly what they were tendering for.
Time
The accelerator reduced the development time by 12-24 months. This was significant because the population is declining by 10% per year.
Cross-agency collaboration
DOC and Fisheries NZ collaborating from the get-go, meant Fisheries NZ understood that the solution was more aligned to their work (in fisheries monitoring than DOC Seabird Biodiversity) and they then led the tendering process.
The result
The accelerator saved the Department of Conservation (DOC) and Fisheries NZ (part of MPI) 2 years of development and $360,000 on the RFP for a fishing vessel bycatch compliance monitoring system.
The work in the accelerator led to the creation of an electric automated monitoring system to ensure commercial fishing vessel compliance with internationally regulated mitigations (night setting, streamer lines, and lineweighting) while incentivising vessels with better management and supply chain transparency.
