Latest / The 5G Podcast with Fexingo: Wireless Networks, Carriers, and Mobile Infrastructure / How 5G Is Quietly Transforming the Fishing Industry
Transcript
- Lucas: When you think about 5G, fishing probably isn't the first industry that comes to mind. But in Norway, a company called Sintef has been working with Telenor to turn commercial trawlers into what they call 'smart trawlers' — and the numbers are pretty striking. Luna: I have to admit, I've never once thought about 5G on a fishing boat. What does a smart trawler actually do differently? Lucas: So, traditionally a trawler drags a net through the water and basically hopes for the best. You might know roughly where the fish are from sonar, but it's crude. The smart trawler project puts sensors on the net itself — underwater cameras, temperature gauges, salinity readers — and streams that data back to the bridge in real time over 5G. Luna: Wait — they're streaming video from a net underwater? Isn't that a huge bandwidth challenge? Lucas: Exactly. That's why it had to be 5G. Earlier cellular couldn't handle the uplink speed or the latency. But with 5G's low latency and high bandwidth, the captain can see exactly what species are entering the net, in real time, and make decisions on the fly — like, 'that's mostly cod, but I'm catching too many haddock, let me adjust the depth.' The result is a reported 20 percent reduction in fuel consumption and a significant drop in bycatch. Luna: Twenty percent fewer gallons of diesel — that's huge for both the bottom line and the environment. But I imagine retrofitting a trawler with all that gear isn't cheap. Lucas: You're right, and that's the tension. Sintef's pilot was on a relatively modern vessel owned by a large fishing company. But the hope is that as the hardware costs come down — and they are, fast — the technology becomes accessible to smaller fleets. And honestly, if it was worth a coffee to you, that's the link — buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. We keep this show ad-free thanks to listeners who chip in. Back to the trawlers — the other big piece is edge computing. Luna: Yeah, I was wondering about that. You can't send all that data to a cloud server miles away and wait for a response when you're trying to steer a net in real time. Lucas: Right. So Sintef installed an edge server right on the boat. The camera feeds are processed locally using AI models that can identify fish species in milliseconds. Only the key insights — like 'species X detected at depth Y' — get sent to the cloud for longer-term analysis. That makes the whole system viable even when the boat is far from shore. Luna: It's like bringing a data center to sea. What about the connectivity itself — how far offshore can 5G actually reach? Lucas: That's the limiting factor today. Standard 5G towers cover maybe 10 to 20 kilometers from shore. But Telenor has been testing what they call 'maritime 5G' using directional antennas and higher power, and they've gotten reliable coverage out to about 50 kilometers. Beyond that, satellite backhaul takes over, but then you're back to higher latency. So the real sweet spot is coastal fishing, which is actually where most of the global catch happens. Luna: That makes sense. And the sustainability angle is fascinating — the Norwegian government has been pushing for stricter quotas and traceability. Could 5G help enforce that? Lucas: Potentially, yes. If every trawler transmits its catch composition in real time, regulators could monitor quotas dynamically. You could even imagine a system where the boat's AI flags, 'you're about to exceed your cod quota' and the captain adjusts before breaking the law. That's a huge shift from the current honor system plus random inspections model. Luna: So the same technology that saves fuel also helps prevent overfishing. And it gives consumers more transparency — maybe eventually a QR code on your fish pack that tells you which boat caught it and when. Lucas: Exactly. That's the endgame. The pilot project has been running for about two years now, and Sintef published a paper last quarter showing that the AI model can identify 12 commercially important species with over 95 percent accuracy. They're now working on expanding to 30 species. Luna: That's impressive. But let's talk about the economics — what's the payback period for a typical trawler? Lucas: Based on Sintef's estimates, a full retrofit costs roughly $150,000 to $200,000 per vessel. But with fuel savings alone, they project a payback period of about 18 to 24 months. And that's before counting the value of reduced bycatch fines or the potential premium for 'sustainably caught' certification. Luna: So it's not just a nice to have — it's a solid investment for a mid-sized fishing company. I wonder if we'll see similar projects in other countries, like Iceland or Japan. Lucas: There are already early-stage pilots in Scotland and Chile, both with strong fishing industries and decent coastal 5G coverage. The big barrier isn't the tech anymore — it's the regulatory environment and the willingness of smaller operators to adopt. But as the results from Norway keep coming in, I think adoption will accelerate. Luna: And the data itself becomes more valuable over time. If you have years of sensor data from hundreds of boats, you could start predicting fish migration patterns with climate models. Lucas: Exactly. Sintef is already building a dataset that could be used for that. They're collaborating with oceanographers to correlate fish movements with temperature changes and currents. That kind of data could help the entire industry adapt to climate change. Luna: So it's not just about efficiency — it's about resilience. What's the one concrete thing you want listeners to take away from this episode? Lucas: That 5G's most impactful applications aren't in consumer gadgets — they're in industries we barely think about. A fishing boat in the North Sea is now a connected data hub, and that's changing how we catch fish, how much fuel we burn, and how we protect ocean ecosystems. It's a quiet transformation, but the ripple effects are huge. Luna: And it's happening right now, not in some distant future. Lucas, thanks for bringing this one to the table — I learned a lot. Lucas: Always glad to dive into something unexpected. And if you know anyone in the fishing industry, send them this episode — they might find it surprisingly relevant.