Vessel Energy Audit Database, Alaska Fisheries Development Foundation (AFDF)

Project Brief

Alaska has the most prolific commercial fishing industry in the United States, harvesting more seafood than all other states combined. The seafood industry ranks 3rd in importance among Alaska’s industries. Each commercial fishing vessel, while underway and at port, has continuous energy needs from propulsion and refrigeration to lighting and hydraulics. The Alaska Fisheries Development Foundation (AFDF), an industry organization dedicated to finding effective solutions to problems common in Alaska’s seafood industry, recognized the high cost of fuel and its environmental impacts and sought to help the fishing industry reduce fuel consumption.  

In close collaboration with the Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association (ALFA), Wostmann developed a vessel energy calculation application and database for analyzing energy use aboard fishing vessels in Alaskan waters. AFDF conducted energy audits from 49 fishing vessels, gathering data from data loggers and handheld measuring devices to determine hydraulic, electrical, refrigeration and propulsion power loads. Wostmann worked with AFDF and ALFA staff to develop a database and the necessary data loading procedures to allow analysis of the data leading to the determination of the key factors that affect vessel efficiency. This permitted AFDF to find the most effective systems, devices, and/or behavior to reduce the fisherman’s operational costs. 

Our team built a web application based on the knowledge gathered from the initial database. This provided a tool for fisherman to enter personalized information about their fishing habits and hardware. The system produces a personalized vessel report with recommendations for reducing energy consumption. Fishermen can return to earlier pages and enter altered parameters to determine which changes are economically worthwhile.  To provide users with the application stores this data anonymously in the database, and the information can be used to further refine the calculations.

Commercial vessel owners are encouraged to use the Fishing Vessel Energy Analysis Tool, accessible at:

Fishing Vessel Energy Analysis Tool

Deliverables

  • Energy audit database

  • Loading procedures

  • Vessel energy analysis web application for fisherman 

Related Work

State and Local Contracts

Wostmann & Associates has more than 25 years experience in state government technology projects. We have supported the State of Alaska in a variety of initiatives, from website and reporting systems to complex integration and enterprise systems and we welcome opportunities to any state with our experienced, senior technology professionals. We often perform our government services via our joint-venture partnership, Alaska IT Group, which combines our services with those of other leading small technology firms. Wostmann and Alaska IT Group are registered in Alaska for several IT service categories listed below. State agencies and local governments may utilize the Alaska Task Order Procurement System (TOPS) for our services or may contact us directly for more information.

  • Cat 2: Mid-range Systems Support

  • Cat 3: Specialized Server and Middleware Administration

  • Cat 4: Data Center Consulting

  • Cat 5: Security Consulting

  • Cat 6: IT Management Consulting

  • Cat 7: IT Procurement and Grant Services

  • Cat 8: OS390 and Z/OS Mainframe Applications Programming Support

  • Cat 9: Distributed Application Analysis, Design and Programming

  • Cat 10: Document Management

  • Cat 12: Project Management

  • Cat 13: Quality Assurance