How blockchain and smart phone are used in fish industry?

Blockchain is strengthen fish traceability to combat illegal and overfishing

Blockchain technology used in fish industry

The story idea:

The ocean is considered as a free food basket for all human being and more than one billion people dependent on seafood for their daily nutrition supply. Due to continued enthusiasm of seafood consuming, overfishing and illegal fishing have become urgent problems in Australia.

WWF (Wildlife and Environment council) proposed to combine blockchain and smart phone in fish industry in 2018. When the fish has been processed, the reusable RFID tag will be switched a QR code tag on the product packaging. Customers can scan the code by mobile phone and see the supply chain. As an effective method of avoiding overfishing and illegal fishing, the adoption of blockchain technology could improve the transparency and traceability of fish industry.


Blockchain technology used in fish industry

(Blockchain technology used in fish industry, supplied WWF)


This feature story can be published in The Sydney Morning Herald since the ocean environment has a close link with all Australians. The Sydney Morning Herald as one of Australia’s most trusted broadcaster has deep audience foundation. It would be a good choice to publish public related information in a national media platform with the aim of promoting the use of new technology.

Target audience:

Ocean environment is the planet’s  life support system and linked to everyone in this world, the focus group is quite broader. The target audience including seafood fans and people who want to find a way to protect the ocean environment. In addition, the main group of seafood buyers are female who aged over 26, they are also included in target audience scope.

Information Source

The research of this story would divide into two parts. Firstly, the phenomenon of overfishing and illegal fishing in Australia would be researched and analyzed. The impacts of overfishing and illegal fishing to the ocean environment and marine ecosystem would also be explored. Accurate data is necessary for this research. Secondly, detailed information of the new technology would be explored. For example, how blockchain works in fish industry, how to keep the effectiveness of progress transparency. In addition, the acceptance level of using new technology in fish market would also be collected.

(Use smartphone to trace product, supplied WWF)


  • Meredith Epp who is the market manager of Australia Marine Council devoted herself in promoting sustainable seafood in the past decade. Meredith has a deep understanding of Australian ocean phenomenon especially overfishing and illegal fishing. In the past months, AMC also conduct several “sustainable seafood” events to help public to understand the importance of eating sustainable seafood and teach them to use the mobile phone to trace the seafood product.
  • Dermot O’Gorman who is the CEO of WWF knows the whole plan and process of blockchain project. Mr. Dermot would able to provide comprehensive details as well as the following plan of the blockchain project.

(Supplied WWF)


Multimedia strategies will be used in this featured story including videos, images and text. Working model of blockchain and the process of sustainable seafood making would be presented through a short video. Details of this technology such as the code on the seafood would be presented by images.

Lin He

Word Count: 510

Lin He
About Lin He 3 Articles
A Master student from the University of Sydney majoring in media practice. Twitter: @Mmukee

1 Comment

  1. Hello, Lin. The blockchain technology is really an interesting topic. And I think it is great that you would adopt multimedia strategies and your content covers industry, consumer and environment which is comprehensive. Moreover, I am really looking forward to read your argument towards the ethical issues of this emerging new technology.

    Several suggestions:
    1. Would that be better if the achievements of this new technology can be researched and presented through chart or statistics? Like what differences have this technology made yet?
    2. Is there any limitation of this technology.
    3. It may be a good choice to try this blockchain technology by yourselves and present the process using images and text which would be more clear and understandable for the reader.
    4. I would be interested in how many places of Sydney have adopted this technology and where can we find it. This may also improve the interaction with your readers.

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