Brilio.net/en - Three students from the Faculty of Fisheries and Marine Science at Brawijaya University invented an environment-friendly fishing gear. The invention of Mohamad Ali Dofir, Romi Dwi Nanda, and Galih Dandung Akbar Gumala was awarded by the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries (KKP) as the 1st place winner in an Environment-friendly Fishing Gear Innovation Competition workshop in early August.
Galih stated that their invention was designed differently from other fishing gears because it is capable of avoiding catching sharks unintentionally. Their invention is named Electroshield System and its system runs only by hooking it to fishnet.
Once the device is activated, it will float when the fishnet is thrown. Both ends of the Electroshield System that are underwater will emit an electronic signal to a sharks electroreception and be perceived as a threat, said Galih as quoted to brilio.net from Prasetya UB site, Wednesday (19/8).
With the Electroshield System, sharks will not approach the fishnet and will not be caught by fishermen. The Electroshield System has a radius of 500 meters below sea level. However, the radius can be upgraded depending on the size of the device used.
Romy added that the Electroshield System can be an option for fishermen because it is environmentally-friendly and appears to be more economic compared to other fish finder navigations. Besides being affordable for most fishermen, the Electroshield System is portable and can be modified when it is used for several fishing gears, said Romy.
Meanwhile, according to Romy and Galih, the non-governmental organization, World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) has an initiative to cooperate with the students in having further research on the Electroshield System. They expect that there will also be a partnership initiative for further research so that it will be applicable to public.