Protecting endangered Olive Ridley Turtles and guiding fishers along Odisha Coast, India through Mobile technology
Full Solution
Fisher friend Mobile App
yes
The Fisher Friend Mobile Application (FFMA) by MSSRF, in collaboration with Qualcomm and INCOIS, supports India’s coastal fishers with real-time data on sea conditions, fishing zones, navigation, and more, all in local languages. Recently, FFMA introduced a No Fishing Zone alert to protect endangered Olive Ridley Turtles along Odisha’s coast. Using geo-fencing, it marks critical turtle habitats—including the Gahirmatha Sanctuary and key river mouths—and triggers audio message and vibrating when fishers approach within 200 meters, even without internet. This offline feature helps fishers avoid fines and supports turtle conservation by preventing unintended fishing in restricted zones. Since its launch, the No Fishing Zone alert has prevented over 6,866 intrusions, aligning conservation with sustainable fishing and supporting fisher livelihoods and safety. FFMA’s technology ensures that fishers benefit from safer, eco-friendly practices while contributing to the preservation of biodiversity in India’s coastal zones
Last update: 14 Jun 2025
98 Views
Tech4Nature Award
Technology Description
Technology Description:
The Fisher Friend Mobile Application (FFMA) is a technological innovation designed to improve the safety, livelihoods, and sustainability of small-scale fishers along the coastal states of India. Initially launched in 2007 on the CDMA platform and later transitioned to Android in 2013, FFMA provides India small fishers with critical, real-time information, including ocean state forecasts, potential fishing zones, weather alerts, and market prices, enabling informed and sustainable fishing practices.
Implementation and Advancements:
- Real-time Data and Decision-Making: FFMA integrates real-time oceanographic data from INCOIS, including wave heights, wind speeds, and sea surface temperatures. The app auto-ports data from Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS), GoI). The crucial and timely data in their local language from FFMA enabling fishers to make timely decisions, enhancing both safety and productivity.
- Environmental Conservation: A key innovation is the app's “No Fishing Zone” alert feature, which uses geo-fencing technology to prevent fishers from entering protected areas, such as those designated for the conservation of the Olive Ridley Turtles along Odisha's coast. This feature supports the government’s marine conservation efforts while safeguarding fishers from legal penalties. The recent feature in the version 5.6 "ghost gear location marking" through the application is again another environmental conservation and restoration efforts to protect the marine animals including turtles from Pollution particularly ghost gears
- Participatory Design and User-Centered Development: FFMA has undergone 56 iterations based on feedback from over 5,000 fishers across multiple states. These revisions have continuously enhanced the app’s usability, adding new features like GPS navigation, emergency contacts, and rescue support. The app’s multi-lingual interface (available in 9 regional languages Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu, Bangla, Odiya, Marathi, Kannada, Gujarati and English) ensures accessibility for a wide range of users. The fishermen going for fishing anywhare in India they will the site ocean state forecast on their own registered language. This is another important user friendly nature of this application.
- Sustainability and Scalability: FFMA’s design is rooted in a multi-stakeholder approach involving local communities, government bodies, and NGOs, ensuring its relevance and scalability. The app currently supports over 1.22 lakh users across 66 coastal districts in India.
Donors and Funding
Qualcomm Wireless Reach, US
Photo and video gallery
Context
Challenges addressed
The Fisher Friend Mobile Application (FFMA) tackles environmental, social, and economic challenges
Environmental: Olive Ridley Turtles are endangered, and their nesting sites along Odisha’s coast face threats from fishing activities. FFMA’s No Fishing Zone alert, using geo-fencing, helps prevent unintended fishing in these critical habitats, supporting turtle conservation and ecosystem health.
Social: Fishers often lack clear guidance on restricted areas, risking fines and local conflicts when they unknowingly enter protected zones. FFMA’s real-time alerts, accessible offline and in regional languages, empower fishers with the knowledge to avoid these zones, enhancing community harmony and safety at sea.
Economic: Fishers face economic strain from fines, equipment damage, and loss of fishing access when encroaching on restricted areas. FFMA reduces these risks by providing precise no-fishing alerts, helping fishers protect their income while aligning with conservation efforts. FFMA thus fosters sustainable practices, benefiting
Location
India
South Asia
Process
Summary of the process
Small-scale fishers face multiple vulnerabilities, including climate change, environmental degradation, economic instability, occupational hazards, and threats to their traditional livelihoods and these necessitating targeted support and interventions address their day to day challenges to mitigate devastating effects on fishers.
FFMA is one such support system for fishers that provides landing centre specific information on ocean state forecast, Potential fishing zone information which fisher folks can safely navigating their fishing zones and identify areas of maximum probability of catching fish with GPS support. Fishermen also receive TUNA species-specific advisories for high value fish which enables them to increase their incomes. To alert the fishermen in advance FFMA provides detailed information of OSF data which includes wave height and direction, wind speed and its direction, Sea current and its direction and sea surface temperature. The information is available in slots of 6 hours, 4 slots per day for 2 days.
Building Blocks
A multi-stakeholder partnership facilitate the successful journey of FFMA
Leveraging diverse expertise from various backgrounds, such as fisheries, technology, and governance, to contribute their expertise and experience. Pooling resources from different stakeholders community, government, technology and knowledge partners including INCOIS and Qualcomm to support the development, implementation, and scaling up of the FFMA. Ensuring the FFMA meets the needs of fishers and other stakeholders, increasing its adoption and impact. All these building a strong foundation for the FFMA's long-term sustainability through shared ownership and commitment.
Enabling factors
Continuous engagement with the fisher community
Continuously engage community in development process enables the development of a more user-friendly and relevant Fisher Friend Mobile Application (FFMA) including identifying and addressing specific challenges and requirements, refining the application based on feedback and evolving needs., building trust and encouraging widespread use among fishers.
Engagement with Qualcomm: Sustained support from Qualcomm is also important factor to take application in PAN India
Embedding Fisher Friend within the Fish for All Centre Programme:
MSSRF integrated Fisher Friend into its Fish for All Centre Programme, focusing on sustainable fisheries development. This alignment leveraged existing resources, expertise, and networks, providing a strong foundation for promoting Fisher Friend.
Engagement with INCOIS:
Collaborating with the INCOIS, MSSRF ensured the provision of critical oceanographic data and advisories. This partnership enhanced the app’s accuracy and relevance for fishers.
Engagement with Departments of Fisheries and the Indian Coast Guard:
Closely work with government departments to align Fisher Friend’s services with government priorities. These partnerships also facilitated policy advocacy and integration with existing fisheries initiatives
Partnership with Fisher Associations and Local NGOs:
By partnering with fisher associations and local NGOs, MSSRF leveraged local networks and expertise
Lesson learned
Continuous engagement with the fisher community is crucial for developing a user-friendly and relevant application.
Regular feedback and updates are necessary to ensure the application meets evolving user needs.
Collaboration with various stakeholders can enhance the application's impact, sustainability, and reach.
Technology can significantly improve the lives and livelihoods of fishers by providing timely information, improving safety, and increasing efficiency.
Multi-pronged capacity building efforts is essential for sustain the interest of fishers to effectively utilize and take the Fisher Friend Mobile Application (FFMA) forward.
The adoption of FFMA among fishers through awareness and capacity building using multi-pronged strategies like awareness campaigns at the village level, conducting mass campaigns at the harbour level, promoting community level fisher friend ambassadors and master fishers for peer to peer learning, announcing top users for every month and audio and video visuals to spread the importance of FFMA in day to day fishing activities etc. All these positivly reflect on the adoption of FFMA.
Enabling factors
Training fishers on using smartphones and navigating the app ensures they can fully leverage its features.
Capacity building enables fishers to understand and apply the information provided by FFMA, such as weather forecasts, market trends, and fishing advisories.
When fishers are confident in using FFMA, they are more likely to adopt and regularly use the features they want in the application.
By understanding how to use FFMA, fishers can make informed decisions about fishing operations, safety, and market engagement. Capacity building empowers fishers to troubleshoot issues, provide feedback, and contribute to the application's ongoing development and improvement.
Lesson learned
By investing in capacity building, fishers can maximize the benefits of FFMA, leading to improved livelihoods, safety, and sustainability in the fishing
Impacts
The Fisher Friend Mobile Application (FFMA) has brought tangible environmental, social, and economic benefits to Odisha’s coastal communities, supporting conservation and sustainable livelihoods.
Environmental Impacts: FFMA’s geo-fencing technology protects endangered Olive Ridley Turtles along Odisha’s coast, notably around Gahirmatha Marine Wildlife Sanctuary and river mouths. The No Fishing Zone alert was triggered 6,866 times across six districts—Ganjam (3,502), Kendrapara (1,241), Jagatsinghpur (90), Puri (992), Balasore (14), and Bhadrak (1,027) as of November 2024, significantly reducing unintentional fishing in critical nesting sites and aiding turtle conservation.
Social Impacts: FFMA’s technology empowers Odisha’s fishers by providing accurate, real-time alerts on restricted zones, fostering compliance with conservation laws and building trust between fishers and authorities. Fishers report increased awareness of marine protection zones, which has reduced accidental violations and promoted safer, community-friendly fishing practices.
Economic Impacts: FFMA helps fishers avoid costly penalties, loss of fishing gear, and potential income disruptions by guiding them away from no-fishing zones. Additionally, features like weather forecasts, disaster alerts, and navigation support have improved safety at sea, helping fishers reduce operational risks, save on fuel, and make more informed decisions.
Beneficiaries
The primary beneficiaries are small-scale fishers near Olive Ridley Turtle conservation zones. They avoid fines and legal issues improve safety and support biodiversity. Indirect beneficiaries include conservationists and local bodies managing marine resources
Additionally, explain the scalability potential of your Solution. Can it be replicated or expanded to other regions or ecosystem?
The Fisher Friend Mobile Application (FFMA) is highly scalable and can be replicated in other coastal regions or ecosystems with similar conservation needs. The app's core functionality—real-time navigation, risk alerts, and conservation zone management—can be adapted to protect diverse marine species, habitats, and address regional challenges.
Its scalability lies in its modular design, which allows customization of features such as geo-fencing for specific conservation zones, vernacular language support, and integration with local regulations. The successful implementation for Olive Ridley Turtles in Odisha could be replicated for other endangered species in coastal areas, such as dugongs or coral reefs. Moreover, FFMA’s technology can be expanded to include new regions or countries, where local marine ecosystems need protection, by collaborating with relevant government and conservation bodies.
This adaptability ensures that the FFMA solution can contribute to biodiversity conservation and sustainable fisheries management in a wide variety of contexts beyond Odisha
Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF)
GBF Target 4 – Halt Species Extinction, Protect Genetic Diversity, and Manage Human-Wildlife Conflicts
Sustainable Development Goals
SDG 14 – Life below water
Story
"Saving Turtles, Sustaining Livelihoods: FFMA’s Transformation in Odisha"
Fishing communities along Odisha’s coastline have long faced a delicate challenge: protecting the endangered Olive Ridley Turtles while sustaining their livelihoods. Every year, these turtles migrate for mass nesting along Odisha’s shores, prompting the government to establish no-fishing zones near key river mouths and marine sanctuaries. However, without tools to identify these zones, fishers often unknowingly entered restricted areas, resulting in fines, boat seizures, and ecological damage. This dual struggle of protecting biodiversity and ensuring fisher livelihoods called for an innovative solution.
The Fisher Friend Mobile Application (FFMA) answered this need, transforming fishing practices in Odisha. The app’s “No Fishing Zone” alert system uses geo-fencing to notify fishers when they approach restricted areas. Its loud alarms, vibrations, and flashing notifications make it impossible to miss the boundaries, even amidst the noise of the sea. Beyond conservation, FFMA makes fishing smarter, safer and more profitable driving a wave of transformation in coastal communities.
For fishers like Bipra Charan Behera, a 28-year-old from Purunabandha village, FFMA has been life-changing. For years, Bipra struggled during the turtle nesting season, unintentionally crossing boundaries despite efforts to avoid them. “We tried to follow instructions, but estimating boundaries by eye wasn’t accurate,” he recalls. These mistakes often led to penalties, adding financial strain to his family.
Two years ago, Bipra learned about FFMA during a government meeting. After downloading the app, he discovered its no-fishing alert feature, which became a game-changer. “The alarm warns me whenever I’m near a restricted area. It keeps me on the right side of the boundaries, avoiding penalties and protecting the turtles,” he explains.
FFMA’s benefits didn’t stop there. Its GPS navigation ensures Bipra returns safely even at night, while potential fishing zone maps help him locate productive areas, boosting his catch and income. Weather forecasts allow him to avoid risky trips, reducing costs and ensuring his family’s security.
In just nine months, FFMA’s alerts have been triggered over 6811 times, preventing countless violations and safeguarding vital nesting habitats. For fishers like Bipra, FFMA isn’t just an app—it’s a lifeline, bridging the gap between conservation and livelihoods while setting an inspiring model for communities worldwide
