N.B. man's invention may help lobster fishermen

A New Brunswick man has invented technology that could help lobster fishermen track the best places to set their traps.

Daniel Doiron said his invention, called Trapster, involves sensors attached to a boat's sounder. GPS helps track water temperature, depth and the exact location of the traps.

Information is recorded on software on a touch screen next to the wheel of the boat.

A fishermen can then track historical data of where he's getting the best catch by entering the pounds per trap he's catching.

"So as they fish through the day it'll tell them whether the catch is going up or down,” Doiron said. “One of our fishermen really likes this. If his pounds per trap is going down and he's fishing a certain area, he'll know that his average isn't as good as the other places he's fishing.”

“That will prompt him to perhaps move some of his traps out to one of the other areas he's fishing, and to give him a better average overall."

Doiron said he got the idea while on his cousin Doug's boat in North Rustico, P.E.I. a few years ago. While he watched his cousin fish, he asked him what difference it might make having this information.

Doiron said Trapster helps fishermen save time and prevents burning fuel unnecessarily when looking for the best places to fish.

Doiron's cousin and other Island fishermen have been helping him test the technology. Doiron said it's working pretty well , and he'll make upgrades as testing results come back.

He told CBC's Island Morning Friday that while lobsters do move around, where they gather can be predictable.

He said he knows it's going to take some convincing to get lobster fishermen to buy it because lobster prices are down and fishermen don't have a lot of extra cash, but he thinks it will be useful tool.

Doiron said it'll be a few years before Trapster can be sold. He's raising money to commercialize it and received a $50,000 grant from the New Brunswick Innovation Foundation's venture capital investment fund.

He estimates Trapster will cost between $4,000 and $5,000 and he said a marine electronics company in Nova Scotia, Hines Marine Services, is already interested in selling it.