Technology helps fishing

"It will allow commercial fishermen to link the exact location of a catch together with variables such as water depth, temperature or salinity. This database can then be analysed to reveal previously hidden patterns, and to make predictions about future trends," says Karen Johns, Director of Compudigm International Ltd.

OceanTrek was developed in partnership with the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA), assisted with funding from Technology New Zealand. Although aimed primarily at commercial fishing and research vessels, the manufactures believe its potential is boundless."The technology is useful in virtually any situation where GPS recording (of exact latitude and longitude of a location) linked to data acquisition is required," says Karen Johns. "It will be useful for underwater searches, whale watch or diving operations, as well as helping environmental organisations such as the Department of Conservation with easy and accurate information gathering, mapping and analysis. OceanTrek will make collecting data while moving around, whether on land or sea, a much more straight-forward task.

"The software is designed to run on Windows 95/98/NT computers and can be used on a basic laptop or a multi-processor NT workstation. Karen Johns says an ideal option would be a palmtop version for field work.