As 2023 draws to a close, it’s a fitting moment to reflect on the milestones we’ve achieved and look forward to the year ahead.

At Vericatch, our commitment to revolutionizing fisheries management through adaptable catch reporting and seafood traceability software remains unwavering.  We’ve made significant progress on those fronts, and we’re looking forward to continuing to develop innovative, easy-to-use tools in 2024 that support fishermen and a stronger, more resilient, industry. 

Here are a few of our highlights from 2023: 

We added to our 2022 ELOG certification for Lobster, with certifications for Crab, Salmon, and Groundfish – which includes Red Fish, Turbot, Halibut, and Cod – in 2023. More certifications will be coming in 2024, and we plan to offer ELOGS for all Canadian fisheries by the DFO mandate. 

We’ve recently unveiled our updated website that reflects where our business is today and where it’s going. It offers a more streamlined portal for our Canadian ELOG users, as well as our FisheriesApp and KnowYour.Fish users from around the world. It also includes a robust new support centre to help with your ELOG questions. Take a look and let us know what you think.

Homepage of the new Vericatch website.

This year has been marked by extensive travel! We’ve been all around the East Coast demo-ing our ELOGS – and we’ll be out and about doing the same this winter (more on that below). We also enjoyed meeting harvesters at the Eastern Canadian Fisheries Expo in Yarmouth and the Fish Canada Workboat Canada Show in St. Johns. We’ve also been farther afield – with trips to Indonesia, Puerto Rico, Brazil, Chile, Iceland, the UK and more.

The Vericatch team at the Fishboat Workboat Show in St. John's.

One of the highlights of this year has been getting feedback from our ELOG users who have transitioned to digital reporting with the DFO, making paper logbooks a thing of the past for them. Here’s one example, and you can find more on our website:

“I have been recommending this program to everyone. Just the simplicity of getting it done at home in the evenings instead of at the wharf won me over. No taking off wet gloves and trying to keep the paper log book dry while filling it out.”

~ Melissa Grandy,  Newfoundland Enterprise Owner/Harvester

We also checked in with key members of our leadership team for their reflections on 2023 and goals for 2024:

Cameron Smith, our VP, Development, says our development team is stoked by all the feedback we’ve received on our FisheriesApp2 ELOGS. His team is looking forward to expanding our Canadian ELOG coverage and improving the product further in the coming year!

Julian Hawkins, our CEO, thought it was super that we were qualified by DFO’s National ELOGS team on Lobster, Crab, Salmon, and Groundfish, with one more qualification, possibly by year end. Another milestone he noted is that our products are being used by nearly a thousand Canadian fishermen as well as a growing number of fisheries around the world. He’s also pleased that our presence in Atlantic Canada has grown markedly, and we are now known in those key markets.

Dalal Al-Abdulrazzak, our VP of Business Development and Chief Science Officer, found our first roadshow in Newfoundland and the chance to meet harvesters in the communities where they live meaningful and memorable. She and the rest of the business team are excited to keep improving our ELOGS based on direct harvester feedback.

And we couldn’t have done any of this without our incredible team, they are our greatest strength. We also couldn’t have done it without you – whether you showed up at one of our roadshow events, chatted with us at a tradeshow or industry event, or sent us feedback online, your support and insights make our product better and our work worthwhile.