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Toolkit

The digitisation of the management of shellfishing on foot
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Keywords

Digitisation, awards, innovation, aquaculture

Description:

Shellfishing along the Galician coast is a traditional form of aquaculture, with a social aspect that supports the economies of many households and has been providing employment opportunities for women in rural coastal area.

The groups of shellfish gatherers of the Fishermen's Guilds "A Pastoriza" of Vilanova de Arousa and "San Antonio" of Cambados (Pontevedra) have to periodically clean the bivalve banks and reseed them, as well as watch over them in summer from the harassment of tourists.

The two organisations, which together account for some 400 women workers, discovered the benefits of digitalising part of their daily work, and immediately recognised the potential of a new tool introduced by an entrepreneur from a family of shellfish farmers, the Xesmar platform. This tool would allow them to have at their disposal all the information related to their work.

They participated in the validation of the tool and helped to shape it, and so in 2018 they became the first to have implemented this platform. In order to master the functioning, they organised training courses in the first few months, provided individualised advice and closely monitored its use.

As a result, they were awarded the second prize for Excellence in Innovation in Fishing or Aquaculture in the X Awards for Excellence in Innovation for Rural Women in 2019, and were able to reduce process times and tasks that previously took days or weeks.


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