Entrepreneur, computer engineer and hobby fisherman Dag Frode Aasnes may be in the process of solving a global environmental problem.
Entrepreneur, computer engineer and hobby fisherman from Sandnes, Dag Frode Aasnes, lost a crab tea last year. It started something that could turn out to be a business adventure.
Ghost traps, they are called. Lost crab pots and lobster traps remain for years as eternal killing machines. Fish or shellfish that end up in these have little opportunity to escape. When they then starve to death, they act as bait and attract new ones, which in turn become trapped.
Diving clubs affiliated with Norway’s Diving Association have, over the last two years, removed 3,500 ghost traps, and received funding from the DNB Savings Bank Foundation to report images and data for research at the Institute of Marine Research.
However, it is not just for animals and the fauna in the sea that this is a problem. As Aasnes even experienced, it is nothing nice to lose precious equipment at sea. Millions of such traps are lost every year on the sea worldwide. The most common reasons are that the traps drive off to deeper water, but boat propellers can also cut the ropes.
The idea is about an extra floating unit that stays down with the crab. If the trap/gear remains under water for a long time, a floating unit is released. This is done by means of a rot-cord.
Here are also unimaginable opportunities in the near future. IOT (internet of things) is in a rapid development, and for a long time the inventor, together with business developer Helge Trettø Olsen, sees that the product can be expanded to include warning and positioning possibilities, according to a message from ResqUnit .
Trettø Olsen tells Hegnar.no that they are working on obtaining investors and associating themselves with industrial partners.
A rough estimate is that there are around 100,000 lobster and crab traps in use in Norway. Of these, about 10 percent are lost each year. In other areas, such as in some places in the Gulf of Mexico, the loss rate is twice as large due to hurricane season.
– Loss of fishinggear is a major problem worldwide, he states.
ResqUnit sees a great potential for the product. Trettø Olsen estimates a price of around NOK 200 per unit, or below $25.