A Portable IoT and Lora-Enabled Safety and Communication Framework for Small-Scale Fishing Vessels

Communications is still a concern for small-scale fishing vessels that don’t have expensive satellite systems. This paper describes geolocation, Environmental Sensing, and resilient, two-way LoRa communications. In addition, it presents a portable IoT framework that revolves around an ESP32-S3 microcontroller and an SX1278 transceiver. Within a dashboard supported by Firebase, it synchronizes the data collected during internet inactivity. The system is active during internet outages. Active two-way messaging is possible in the proposed system, which is an improvement over existing systems that emphasize one-way telemetry. This allows for real-time safety communications and monitoring. Shackelford and Schoch, in their field trials, noted reliable messaging across two kilometers inland and four kilometers offshore, proving its alignment with near-shore fisheries operations. The practicality is enhanced by the system's portability, modularity, and low price, which also allows for scalability into larger fleets and the national fisheries monitoring system. Planned future improvements involve AES-based encrypted messaging, energy management for multi-day voyages, mesh relay systems to extend communications, and a community-level safety tool. This enhances and strengthens the proposed system as a national-scale safety solution.