Ashored

Ashored is a Canadian hardware and software company developing a rope-on-command fishing system to minimize the risk of whale entanglements and trap loss/damage while enabling a more efficient fishing process.

Ashored’s MOBI (modular ocean-based instrument) coils and contains a fisher’s line on the ocean floor until they return to the area to collect the gear. Ashored's underwater buoy/rope releases are designed to work seamlessly with existing lobster traps, crab pots, and trawl lines, allowing these devices to be activated either acoustically or via a timer. Once the buoy and connecting rope rise to the surface, fishermen can use existing onboard equipment and processes to retrieve the gear and prepare it for redeployment. Ashored’s buoys use AI to collect data and make recommendations, and use geo-tracking to locate lost traps.

Ashored has also developed ATLAS, an intuitive suite of software and hardware that tracks the location, inventory, connectivity, and ownership of a user's fishing gear. Super Tags, Smart Tags, and sensor arrays collect data, while the ATLAS+ software automates and presents this information in a convenient and actionable manner. ATLAS was aimed to be available in the Google Apps store in August 2023, where the latest software release, Version 2023, was a user-friendly app that allowed trap harvesters to mark the location of their gear deployments, interact wirelessly with Ashored's Rope on Command Gear, and provide seamless cloud backups.

In 2022, the company conducted small-batch production runs, working closely with customers to improve MOBI and ATLAS features, fix production errors, and enhance organizational and quality assurance processes. As of August 2023, the company's products were priced at USD 2,500 for ATLAS + Tablet (Beta), USD 34 for RAP Tech Weighted Runner, USD 2,000 for MOBI, and USD 9,500 for the Rope On-Command (ROC) Fishing Starter Kit.