SOLUTION / PUBLIC SOURCE RECORD
Resqunit’s high-tech flotation buoy stops ghost fishing
- Published 22 March 2023; updated 21 September 2026; estimated reading time 3 minutes. Listed under Maritime and Technology.
- Resqunit is a retrieval system for traps and pots. A flotation buoy attaches to fishing gear and, after the gear remains underwater for a set period, releases and rises so the equipment can be recovered. The article says an electronic time-release function was planned to add more precise retrieval; that statement refers to a 2021 plan.
- The page cites an estimated one million tonnes of fishing gear lost at sea annually and describes “ghost gear” as continuing to catch animals and add plastic pollution, with entanglement and damage to marine habitats. It says Resqunit’s system aims to reduce replacement costs for fishers and loss of catch as well as ecological harm.
- Sensors and software were being added to collect ocean data, including temperature, salinity, oxygen and lobster/crab movement. The article says a catch-forecast prototype was in the ocean and that acquiring Global Ocean Data was intended to support climate research and commercial data uses.
- The company estimated the solution would reduce ghost fishing by 30,000 tonnes and plastic pollution by 11,000 tonnes within five years; these are dated projections and should not be read as verified outcomes. The page also contains historical market plans: launch in Australia and Canada in autumn 2021, pilots in Florida and Jamaica, and an IPO planned for May 2021. Their present status is not established here.
- The page mentions IMO work on best practices for lost gear and says Resqunit was then sold in Norway. It quotes the company’s ambition to build large-scale ocean datasets; this is a promotional claim.
- Linked to SDG 9 (Industry, innovation and infrastructure) and SDG 14 (Life below water) for reducing ghost fishing and protecting marine ecosystems.
- Contact: Helge Trettø Olsen, CEO, helge@resqunit.com. Company: RESQUNIT AS, Grenseveien 21, 4313 Sandnes, Norway; resqunit.com. A phone-number reveal control is present.