QR Codes have now ventured into the sea. The Fisheries Department of Sabah, Malaysia is set to use these 2D barcodes on fishing boats.
The waters of Sabah are one of the best when it comes to fishing seafood. Over the years, boats from neighbouring countries have illegally ventured into Sabah’s waters to fish.
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To keep illegal fishing boats at bay, the authorities had initially painted registration numbers on local fishing boats. Soon, it was noticed that some foreign boats bore fake registration numbers. To fit in with the local fishing folk, some illegal boats even had the Malaysian flag painted on them.
The entry of illegal foreign fishermen posed a threat of overfishing the waters. Besides this, they gave competition to the local fishermen, affecting their business.
Failure of the previous verification system led the department to adopt QR Codes. QR Codes are today used for anti-counterfeiting for many use cases.
QR Codes on Fishing Boats
The Fisheries Department of Sabah will add QR Codes to 51 fishing boats. These QR Codes will link to a registration number and other necessary documents. The authorities will carry a QR Code scanner to verify the encoded documents.
“This (QR Code) will make it easier to detect any illegal fishermen.” –Dr Ahemad Sade, Fisheries Department Director
Dr. Sade has also said that QR Code identification is difficult to replicate. This will help authorities easily differentiate between registered and illegal fishing boats.
The process of painting QR Codes on all the local boats is expected to be completed by May 2017.
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