When the tsunami hit Banda Aceh, it killed 186,000 people. Of those 186,000 approximately 40,000 were fishermen. One of the consequences of so many lives lost, was that much of the fishing knowledge of the area was also lost, e.g. the location of navigational hazards, underwater sea mounts, where the fish are, etc..

To help rebuild the knowledge, the Community-based Bathymetric Survey (CBBS) are using the GPS sounders with data logging devices to record where the fishermen are going, i.e. depth, sea surface temperature, range, efficiency i.e., how much effort they are putting into getting the fish they catch.

The strategy is to build the capacity of the fishermen’s association Panglima Laot to collect and record the type of data they need to manage themselves in the future. One of the first steps is to start collecting and managing their information. With that goal in mind, they have created a small Access database in Acehnese. In this database, the fishermen record data related to boats under the authority of the Panglima Laot. For example, data is being collected with respect to which species of fish the fishermen are catching, and the amounts they are catching of each species.