TECHNOLOGY DRIVEN SAFETY SOLUTIONS FOR SMALLS-SCALE FISHERS

Technology sits at the heart of how Friends of the Nation is transforming safety at sea for Ghana’s artisanal fishers. Rather than relying on safety awareness alone, we are pairing hands-on training with practical, affordable tools that give fishers, their families, and regulators real-time visibility into what’s happening on the water,  before a routine trip becomes an emergency.

The Alon Device

In collaboration with the Fisheries Commission, the Ghana National Canoe Fishermen Council (GNCFC), and other partners, Friends of the Nation has introduced the Alon device; a solar-powered, satellite-based tracking system fitted directly onto artisanal fishing canoes.

Here’s how it works:

• Continuous, real-time tracking. Once installed on a canoe, the device transmits location and activity data around the clock, giving canoe owners, crew, and regulators full visibility into every fishing expedition, even far from shore, where phone networks fail.
• Bluetooth connectivity for crews. Fishers on board connect to the device via Bluetooth, linking their activity directly to the tracking system without complicated equipment.
• SkyTracker mapping. Data from the device feeds into SkyTracker, a system that plots each canoe’s location and movements on a live digital map accessible to stakeholders, turning scattered, invisible activity at sea into something that can actually be monitored and responded to.
• The Adarna app. Canoe owners, family members, and chief fishermen can connect via the Adarna app on an Android smartphone, sending and receiving real-time alerts and messages with the device on their canoe, so a family on shore isn’t left guessing when a boat is overdue.
• Support for governance and enforcement. Beyond safety, the real-time data strengthens fisheries regulation and resource management, giving regulators and researchers accurate, up-to-date information on canoe movements to inform policy, monitoring, and enforcement.

Why it matters

For small-scale fishers, the sea has always been unpredictable, but until now, so was knowing whether someone was in trouble. The Alon device changes that equation: a canoe that goes off course, stalls, or fails to return on schedule can now be identified quickly, giving rescuers a fighting chance to reach fishers in time. Combined with our safety training and hazard-reporting work under the Marine SafeNet Ghana Project, it forms part of a broader shift, from reacting to tragedies at sea, to preventing them.