Finding fish is no longer a guessing game with AI-driven location forecasting

When GreenFish founder and CEO Sveinn Sigurdur Jóhannesson was completing his bachelor’s degree in September 2023, his focus was on finishing his capstone essay, titled ‘Innovation with artificial intelligence in fisheries’.

But the practical goals of finishing the essay and earning his degree became incidental as Jóhannesson realised that a significant part of fishing – finding the fish – had failed to develop in the digital age. “While there has been remarkable innovation in ship design, engine technology and processing systems, the development of tools to guide decision-making on where to deploy vessels at sea has been virtually non-existent,” Jóhannesson explains.

New tools for finding fish improve revenues and sustainability

Without the data-driven innovations offered by GreenFish, captains have a limited array of tools to guide them in searching for fish. They can review their catch logs from previous years, analyse water temperature and currents that impact fish behaviour or simply call friends already out on the water to see where fish can be found. The most sophisticated device at a captain’s disposal is a traditional fish-finding sonar, but this tool requires the ship to be already within a few hundred metres of the catch.

GreenFish offers a data-driven solution that provides species-specific forecasts up to 10 days in advance all around the world. The company’s models target several commercially valuable fish species including tuna, cod, herring and sardines. In addition to information about species and location, forecasts accurately predict quantity and quality of the catch too. 

The company achieves these results by combining decades of fishing data, real-time data from satellites and supercomputing. The success of machine-learning models for the fisheries sector improves revenue, but it also supports European sustainability goals. Fuel usage and carbon release are among the biggest environmental drawbacks of the fishing industry, and accurate forecasts reduce the time and energy spent locating a high-quality catch. Since the forecasts provide composition information as well, captains can avoid bycatch or netting unintended species. 

Meeting the challenges of a rapidly growing start-up

GreenFish has tapped into a real need in the fisheries sector. As Jóhannesson shares: "The response from the fishing industry has exceeded all expectations. Today, we work with companies around the world to tackle a variety of challenges across different ocean zones."

However, such rapid growth for a company under two years old presents challenges. GreenFish is still fine-tuning its models, and the cost of high-performance computing can be a setback for a young company. In 2024, GreenFish applied for a national grant to meet its growing needs, and when the company failed to be awarded the grant, Jóhannesson turned to the Enterprise Europe Network for help. 

Network advisers Sigthrudur Gudnadottir and Mjöll Waldorff of the Icelandic Centre for Research (RANNIS) met with GreenFish multiple times to clarify the needs of the company, which were mostly financial. They provided expert advice on how to write grant applications, leading to the successful application for a technology innovation grant and the award of EUR 350 000 for essential funding. 

The Enterprise Europe Network also connected GreenFish to the European Digital Information Hubs (EDIH) to address its supercomputing needs. EDIH assists SMEs with access to supercomputing and provides support and connections to seasoned data specialists. This allows young companies to avoid over-investing in infrastructure early on, when resources need to be allocated elsewhere.

The rapid growth of GreenFish and its speedy internationalisation underscore the global need for the services it offers. As Network adviser Sigthrudur Gudnadottir emphasises: "GreenFish’s journey clearly illustrates the core mission of the Enterprise Europe Network: to support SMEs in unlocking their innovation potential and scaling internationally."