Big Data

INTRODUCTION: WELCOME TO A SMARTER WORLD

The world is getting smarter.

This evolution can be seen everywhere and no industry or sector is immune. Consider an industry as old and well established as fishing, for example. Although human beings have been fishing since the beginning it wasn't until the 16th century that fisherman had boats capable of going to sea. This advance radically changed the fortunes of fishing and made large, profitable catches possible for the first time. The ships would set out for the fishing grounds using little more than a compass, a sextant and some ‘inside knowledge’ passed down through the generations of fishing families. If they were sailing at night they would use celestial navigation techniques and plot a course by the stars in order to arrive in the right vicinity. When the fisherman arrived at the fishing grounds they would cast their nets and hope for the best.

By the late 19th century fishing had been commercialized. Small fishing boats gave way to massive trawlers with on-board processing capabilities, the discovery of longitude and latitude made navigation considerably easier and in the last few decades technology has transformed fishing from an art to a science. Modern fishing boats are technology rich, using high tech navigation systems and GPS. Often small sensors are attached to the fish to track where the shoals are at any given time and sonar is used to pinpoint the density of the shoal and where and when to cast the nets. Modern ...