# Addressing Gaps in Small-Scale Fisheries: A Low-Cost Tracking System +
## 5 Conclusions  
Preliminary results are encouraging as the proposed architecture offers a serverless, cost-effective and low-maintenance solution of data reporting for under-12 metre inshorge fishing vessels.  
Although processing routines could be improved, also thanks to ongoing monitoring, collected positional data are of fine scale and good quality, as well as the stored individual fishing trips. The small unit seems to be reliable, inexpensive to use (as it has a low-power requirement, operating on 12-24v DC), and easy/quick to fit (as it can be programmed remotely). All this could meet the requirements of government and the fishing industry and could avoid overburdening fishers in terms of reporting.  
Moreover, if combined with an appropriate data processing to infer spatially explicit fishing events, such boat tracking could provide sufficient information on SSF fishing activities for sustainable management of the fisheries and the marine ecosystem.  
This could enable a new monitoring strategy that effectively includes SSF and supports the design of more efficient policies oriented to inform stakeholders (e.g., fishers themselves, marine planners, and fisheries managers) when making decisions relating to the marine environment and activities [56].  
Of course, it is a challenge for fishers and especially for small-scale vessel fishers to adopt and afford new technologies for fisheries monitoring and reporting fishing-activity data. Therefore, in the short future, appropriate incentives and adequate financial compensations will be necessary for integrating these technologies into fisheries-management schemes, and an opportunity could come, for instance, from the European Maritime Fisheries and Aquaculture Fund (EMFAF) [21].  
Conceptualization, A.N.T., A.M., and A.G.; methodology, A.N.T., A.M. and A.G.; software, A.G. and J.P.; validation, A.G. and J.P.; formal analysis, A.G. and J.P.; investigation, A.G. and J.P.; data curation, A.G. and J.P.; writing--original draft preparation, A.N.T. and A.G.; writing--review and editing, A.N.T., A.M., L.B., A.G. and J.P.; supervision, A.N.T.; project administration, L.B.; funding acquisition, L.B. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.  
This research was funded, as part of the Activity 5.2, by the Interreg V-A Italy-Croatia CBC Programme 2014-2020, \"Strategic\" Project ARGOS - ShARed GOvernance of Sustainable fisheries and aquaculture activities as leverage to protect marine resources in the Adriatic Sea. Project ID 10255153. [[https://www.italy-croatia.eu/web/argos](https://www.italy-croatia.eu/web/argos)]([https://www.italy-croatia.eu/web/argos](https://www.italy-croatia.eu/web/argos)) (accessed on 14 December 2021).  
Not applicable.  
Informed Consent Statement: Informed consent was obtained from the involved fisher whose identity had been kept confidential.  
Data Availability Statement: Samples of collected data are available at [PERSON] et al. [46], together with the developed R routines. The code is also available at [[https://github.com/irbimMAPS/ssf](https://github.com/irbimMAPS/ssf)]([https://github.com/irbimMAPS/ssf](https://github.com/irbimMAPS/ssf)) (accessed on 14 December 2021).  
The authors thank the participant fishers who actively contributed to the implementation of this prototype and those fishers who will participate soon.  
Conflicts of Interest: The authors declare no conflict of interest. The funders had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript; or in the decision to publish the results.