#24 HG Theoria

Executive Summary
HG Theoria is a company that aims to
globally reduce IUU (Illegal, Unreported,Unregulated) fishing and manage fisheries
sustainably through the creation of our product,“MARINET”. This is a light and compact fishing netthat is made of crab shell biodegradable plastic,
which goes against ghost fishing and helps toconserve marine biodiversity. We will buy the crabs
from legal Vietnamese fishers and manufacture thenet in Vietnamese factories, transport that toJapanese headquarters, then sell the nets tofishermen and the crab meat to buyers in Japan. We
will mainly advertise our product through newspapers
and radios to appeal to the fishermen.
Business Model

Our company aims to end IUU fishing byincreasing the number of legal fishermen in Vietnam.
We will pay higher prices to buy crabs from legal
fishermen so that they will benefit more than illegal
fishermen. IUU fishermen ignore the laws and rules
because they gain higher profits by doing so.
Therefore, if we pay legal fishermen with a higher
wage than illegal fishermen, more fishermen will findthe legal method attractive and will lead to anincrease in legal fishermen.1 The increase of legal
fishermen will help to decrease the number of IUU
fishing and the fishermen from developing countries,
such as Vietnam, will also have a higher wage
managing fishery sustainably. After purchasing thecrabs from the legal fishermen we will separate thecrab shell and the crab meat at a factory in Vietnam.
The crab shell will be processed to make a new type1

https://worldoceanreview.com/en/wor-2/fisheries/illegal-fishing/of fishing net, the MARINET, and the crab meat willbe packed and sold to buyers in Japan. TheMARINET will be processed in Vietnam due to thecheap personnel expenses compared to Japan andwill later be used by Japanese fishermen, adding onto the conservation of marine biodiversity.
We have chosen Vietnam because it has
been issued a yellow card in 2017 by the European
Commission, showing the prevalence of illegal
fishing there.2 In addition to the fact that Vietnam is
one of the biggest country conducting IUU fishing, itis also ranked fourth in the world for the highest
amount of crabs caught and produced.3 Vietnam is a
developing country still in progress of preventing IUUfishing and is also close to Japan, making it easierfor us to transport our product between the twocountries. As a result, Vietnam is suited for ourbusiness model and will be an appropriate place tostart our business.
What is the MARINET?
MARINET is an eco-friendly fishing net
created by crab shells. MARINET is designed totackle the problem of ghost fishing; the fact thatfishing nets make up almost half of the plastic waste
in the ocean. Fishers often throw their nets away
after catching the fish because it creates more spaceon their boat to store fish. Therefore, MARINET islight and compact, reducing the need to throw nets
out after use. In addition, MARINET is made of
biodegradable plastic made by crab shells, whichallows it to decompose fully from 3-6 months, which
is more than 100 times quicker than their synthetic
counterparts. This reduces the risk of fish gettingcaught in the nets and works to conserve marine
biodiversity.
How is the MARINET made?
The MARINET uses bioplastic as its main
raw material and we have taken notice of chitin
nanofiber as an applicable new technology
developed by Shinsuke Ifuku et al . Chitin nanofiber
inside the shell of crabs can be used by using acid toneutralize and alkaline to solubilize the calcium andprotein inside the crab shell. The chitin nanofiber willthen be easier to wet, crush, and isolate for use. 4Chitin nanofiber is ⅕ the lightness of steel
and 5 times tougher so it is also used as reinforcing
fibre.5 By building this chitin nanofiber into bioplastic,
we are able to make a lighter and tougher fishing net
than conventional ones. In addition, chitin nanofiberand bioplastic are both biodegradable so this newly2

https://www.seafoodsource.com/news/supply-trade/european-parliament-delegation-visits-vietnam-to-study-efforts-against-iuu-fishing3​https://www.globalnote.jp/post-2864.html?cat_no=2074​https://katosei.jsbba.or.jp/view_html.php?aid=411
5​http://www.marine-nf.com/applications

combined material will not harm marine animals even
if it is thrown away as ghost nets and will help toprotect marine biodiversity.

Fig1.
MARINETimage model

Marketing and Target
Although IUU fishing is more common indeveloping countries than in developed countries, itis impossible to sell our product to developing
countries because our product will use the latesttechnology. Therefore we decided to sell MARINET
to fishermen in Japan, one of the developed
countries, as the first target of our business. Because
our company is a Japanese company and we use thetechnique of producing chitin nanofiber invented by
the Japanese company, it is easier to sell our productto domestic fishermen. We also set our target toJapan because it consumes a lot of crab meat.
Japan also has the second highest percentage ofseafood.6 imports. By selling crab meat cheaper thanusual crab meat imported, Japan will be required toimport fewer crabs which declines the overall risk ofimporting crabs caught by IUU fishing.
The best two ways to promote our product toJapanese fishermen are using radio broadcastingand posting advertisements in newspapers. Becauseradios are portable, fishermen have more opportunity
to hear our advertisement than on TV. We decided touse newspapers because many Japanese fishermen
are more familiar with the newspaper than onlinearticles.
Financial Plan and Fundings
Our company will be funded by three major
agencies. The first agency will be the factory inVietnam used to process the crab meat in order toexport to Japan. This factory will fund our company
and we will have a partnership so our company will
pay for the wages of the factory workers and theVietnamese factory will provide us with theprocessed crab shell and meat.
To make the plastic from crabs, we will get
the extract needed from two companies:“Omuratoryo Co. Ltd” and “Marine nano-fiber Co.
Ltd”. Because these companies own the patent forthe crab bioplastic, we will need to give them 6% of
our profits.7
Lastly, our company will be funded by “NittoSeimo Co., Ltd.” and “Kinoshita Fishing Net Mfg.Co.,
Ltd.” These companies have the biggest share overfishing nets in Japan. Because Nitto Seimo has halfof the domestic share in Japan, producing theMARINET together with these companies both will
benefit them and HG Theoria.
Our main sponsors will be Showa NoteCorporation. This company creates “Japonica study
notebooks”8, which aims to raise awareness about
environmental problems through study notebooks forchildren. They have different types of notebooks that
promote awareness about the “natural environment”
and the “wonders of food”. Information about IUU
fishing and the damage it has on marine biodiversity
will be displayed in the “natural environment”
notebooks, and how crab can be used to makebioplastic will be in the “wonders of food” notebooks.
Here is our financial plan for over three years:

Conclusion
HG Theoria believes that IUU fishing is a serious
problem that endangers the natural marine
biodiversity and increases criminal activity.
Therefore, we have set up our business to not only
produce a product that will help to solve the problemof ghost fishing and endangered marine life but will
also help to decrease criminal activity by eradicating
poverty in legal fishers.

7​https://jstore.jst.go.jp/nationalPatentDetail.html?pat_id=32352
http://www.showa-note.co.jp/japonica/feature/html/persistence.
html
86​http://www.fao.org/3/i9540en/I9540EN.pdf​, p55, table16