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Find out more about OLFISH's latest developments:

OLFISH: The newest generation of the Olfish software will be presented at the following Exhibitions/Expos around the world by Dr Amos Barkai and members of the Olfish development team:

Decisive stage of South Pacific Regional Fisheries Organisation - "Representatives from 22 countries will meet in Chile’s coastal town of Reñaca..."

OLFISH - BridgeConsole

International Fisheries Observer Conference:
May 15 – 18, 2007
Victoria Conference Centre
Victoria BC, Canada

Faeroe Islands’ trawler on fire off south Chile - "One crew member dead and eight disappeared is the primary balance of a fire which broke out Friday night in the Faeroe Islands flagged factory vessel BF Hercules..."

OLFISH-Fleet Manager

OCEANS '07 IEEE:
June 18 - 21, 2007
Aberdeen Exhibition and Conference Centre, Bridge of Don
Aberdeen, Scotland

Argentina distributes 2007 toothfish quotas totaling 2.500 tons -"Argentina’s Under Secretary of Fisheries and Aquaculture announced toothfish quotas for the 2007 season of 1.750 tons ..."

OLFISH-FishingConsultant

Fish Africa:
October 24 - 26, 2007
CTICC
Cape Town, South Africa

South Africa and New Zealand:closer fisheries ties - "New Zealand and South Africa are set to work more closely together on a range of fisheries and marine protection issues..."

OLFISH-Mapper

Seafood Directions Conference:
31 October - 2 November, 2007
Hotel Grand Chancellor
Hobart, Tasmania



International Agents
	Formation of Olrac-UK. In 2004, Olrac set up a subsidiary company Olrac-UK that specializes in fisheries catch data and tracing solutions. The company has been formed primarily to service the European market and to provide a local presence for the Olfish suite of fisheries software. They are currently developing the expanded traceability module for Olfish called Olfish TRACE. This will enhance the existing Olfish suite of software to include the latest traceability technology, vessel and shore based, including the design and introduction of a web-based viewer of forward landing information from fishing vessels. In addition, Olrac-UK is responsible for communication and liaison within the UK and Europe on behalf of Olrac. Olrac-UK are currently involved in several high profile fisheries-orientated EU projects and are in the process of negotiating several UK based contracts. The personnel of Olrac-UK LTD are all highly experienced in marine software design and management, and complement the extensive knowledge base already present within Olrac. Based in Ayr, Scotland Olrac-UK are ideally placed to service the needs of the UK fishing fleet and further afield. They have extensive skills in designing bespoke software and specialise in designing and implementing tailor made solutions for the fishing industry. >>Click here for further information.
	Formation of Olfish-NZ Ltd. Olfish-NZ Ltd was formed in 2005, as the culmination of over six years of research and development within New Zealand by Olrac. The development team has been working closely with and cvarious groups ompanies to best tailor an existing database product to meet the complex and varied needs of the New Zealand fishing industry. Olfish-NZ comprises many years of experience in all aspects of fishing related activities, coupled with technical expertise in the increasingly specialised field of marine electronics and technology, to bring unique solutions for at sea and land based scenarios. >>e-mail Olfish-NZ.
	Fishwell Consulting. The agent for Olfish in Australia is Dr Ian Knuckey of Fishwell Consulting. In addition, Olrac is also conducting fishery related consulting work in Australia in cooperation with Fishwell consulting. >> e-mail Fishwell Consulting.
CALL FOR INTERNATIONAL AGENTS	Olfish is currently looking for distributors of its software in Asia, North America and Europe (excluding the UK, Norway, Iceland and Holland). Any organisations or individuals interested that can demonstrate the required capabilities are invited to contact the Olfish development team. The role requires a proven experience of IT and fisheries-related issues. In addition, the applicants would need to be well established within their regional and national fishing industry and fisheries management authorities. For further information or to forward your details- please email, telephone or fax using the following details: E-mail: info@olrac.com Tel: +27 21 702 4111 Fax:+27 21 702 4333


Projects
	Olfish passes all SHEEL requirements. OLFISH is the forerunner in the European Union SHEEL Project (Secure and Harmonised European Electronic Logbook) for the collection and transmission of fisheries data by EU fishing fleets, and is currently undergoing testing in the UK and Holland. In December 2005, it was announced that Olfish was the only collaborator to have successfully passed all of the SHEEL compliance requirements. In addition, Olrac played a significant role in the initial development of the project determining the requirements of the reporting procedures. The main objective of the project is to develop, implement and demonstrate a secure, cost-effective and harmonized European electronic logbook for fisheries, so as to drive European regulations, ensuring exploitation of living marine resources in a sustainable manner, improve economic and social conditions in the fisheries sector and provide scientists with high quality data. Olrac is not funded in its participation in the SHEEL project as, when the project was initiated, no allowances for funding for non-European establishments were made. Olrac funds itself for the entirety of its involvement in the SHEEL Project and is the only non-European company to participate in this project. >> Click here for further information.
	Participation in the EU CEDER Project. OLFISH is also part of the EU CEDER project (Catch, Effort and Discard Estimates in Real-time). The objective of the task is to develop operational (near) real time catch estimation from VMS (Vessel Monitoring System) data and observer reports, which also can be used for short-term forecast of the catches in order to obtain reliable information on the degree of TAC uptake. The task is also to investigate if a combination of satellite data, observers’ reports and other information can be used to improve estimates of discarding practices. Within CEDER, Olrac leads the efforts to develop a harmonized data structure for the project, tests the observer logbook during the trials and leads the work on assessing the benefits of real-time information to the fishing industry. The project aim is to develop common vision with regard to the collection of catch and discarded data. The final product of this project will not be a fully, functional electronic logbook system, but rather, agreed standards which can then be used as specifications/requirements for possible developers. Olrac has been awarded 83,000 Euros to facilitate its involvement in the CEDER project. Olrac’s allocation is one of the largest awarded to a non-academic or governmental organisation, in this project. >> Click here for further information.
	Olfish compliance in Australia. Olfish is now fully compliant with the Australian Fishery management Authority (AFMA) reporting standards which include automatic encryption and digital authentication procedures. Olrac conducted 100’s of tests against the AFMA system and after some teething period OLFISH successfully passed them all. Our software was adopted by the South East Trawl association (SETFIA - about 130 vessels) and the Great Australian Bight Trawl Fishery (GABTF – 10 vessels) as their tool of choice to facilitate the collection and transmission of fishery data. A number of Fishing companies operating in Australia have Olfish installed on their vessels utilising it to capture their fisheries data and to transmit reports to the management authorities. Olfish is also used in Australia for teaching purposes and is installed onboard the Australian maritime training vessel. The OLFISH development team was involved with the installation and customisation of the software, in order that it fit the requirements of both the operating companies, and management authority, and currently provide ongoing technical support. >> Click here for further information.


Funds
	SPII Funding of Olfish. Olfish has recently been awarded funding from The Support Programme for Industrial Innovation (SPII), on behalf of the Department of Trade and Industry in South Africa. SPII currently contribute towards the development of Olfish to the amount of approximately R900, 000 (US$140,000). The SPII programme is designed to promote and assist technology development in South African industry through the provision of financial assistance for projects that develop innovative products and/or processes. >> Click here for further information.

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