Depok beach in Bantul regency has a big potential in fish. This area is even one of seafood centres in Yogyakarta. Unfortunately, fish catchment from the area is still low due to the traditional method that is adoped by the fishermen. In the past two years, production has even decreased from time to time.
Concerned with this situation, a group of Geography UGM students tried to offer coaching to the fishermen related to technology that allows them to find the location of fish using smart calendars based on geographic information system. It was Cahyadi Ramadhan, Miftakhul Munir, Najmah Munawaroh, and Aji Dwi Pratama that developed the idea for the Student Creativity Programme for Community Service under the guidance of Nur Mohammad Farda, S.Si., M.Sc.
“The Depok beach has large fish potential, compared to other beaches in Bantul. But the fishermen from the area cannot make optimum earnings due to the traditional equipment that they use for fishing,” said Najmah on Friday (12/5) at Faculty of Geography UGM.
These students provided training for the fishermen to read and apply the smart calendar to determine the fishing location. This is done to increase the amount of fish that they can collect despite the small size of the boat. The training started since April 2017, using the GPS in the smartphones to show to what direction they need to fish optimally.
“This calendar is very useful for the fishermen so that they can be more effective and efficient when fishing,” said the student.
It is quite simple to read the Smart Calendar. They only need to input the coordinates already installed on the calendar that the fishermen can be directed to the right location for fishing.
“When the fishermen do this every time they go to sea, they will get well directed, which is more efficient, so the fish productivity will eventually increase,” she concluded.