Low-code – Key to modern fisheries monitoring

The Federal Office for Agriculture and Food (BLE) is digitizing its fisheries management system

Digitization of Fisheries Control Management – innovative, efficient leading in Europe

The German Federal Office for Agriculture and Food (BLE) plays a central role in the European fisheries sector: It monitors catch quotas and fishing effort and ensures compliance with strict EU regulations for the protection of marine resources.

Before the project began, the IT infrastructure for managing deep-sea fishing at the BLE was highly fragmented — characterized by isolated solutions, manual processes, and media breaks. Real-time analysis was virtually impossible, and the increasing complexity of EU requirements made rapid, data-driven decisions significantly more difficult.

With the goal of standardizing all fisheries oversight processes and managing them digitally, the BLE decided on a fundamental overhaul—relying on one of Europe’s most advanced low-code platforms. Together with Scopeland Technology, the BLE launched a digitalization project that is now regarded across Europe as a beacon of administrative modernization.

Our Solution: FIT – The Digital Platform for Fisheries Control

Scopeland Technology developed the Fisheries Information System (FIT), an integrated low-code solution that digitizes and interconnects all specialized processes involved in fisheries enforcement.

FIT is the BLE’s central control and information system: It manages fishing vessels, permits, quotas, catch data, and geographic information in a unified digital environment. The platform combines high technical expertise, data intelligence, and user-friendliness—thus enabling a fully digitized overview of fisheries management.

More than 58 specialized modules and approximately 2 million lines of code, 25% of which involve geodata, were generated automatically at a rate of over 99% using SCOPELAND low-code technology.
This exceptional level of automation significantly shortened development times and ensures maximum flexibility for future requirements.

A particular highlight is the embedded GIS approach: geodata is fully integrated into business processes. Maps, fishing areas, and maritime boundaries can be analyzed and directly incorporated into technical decisions—a first in European government IT.

automatically generated

99,2%

automatically generated

lines of code

2 million

lines of code

Specialized modules

58

Specialized modules

 Geodata Reference

25%

Geodata Reference

All in one platform

With FIT, the BLE now has, for the first time, a fully digital, networked system that centrally manages all fisheries control tasks.
Whether it’s data exchange with EU systems, quota management, or mobile inspection operations—all functions work seamlessly together, creating a new level of efficiency, transparency, and security.

Highlights & Features

Highlights & Features

  • Central data platform with interfaces to electronic logbooks, EU systems, sales data, and national specialized applications
  • Automated cross-checks and plausibility checks for secure, valid decision-making
  • Digitized fishing vessel registry with integrated application and approval processes
  • Seamlessly embedded GIS functionality for mapping fishing trips, fishing grounds, and maritime boundaries
  • Offline-capable inspection software for use on the high seas—robust and field-tested
  • Specialized applications for fish species, fishing gear, wind farms, quotas, maritime boundaries, and much mor

Project success

The FIT project is now regarded as a technological milestone in the digitization of public administration:

  • Quick deployment, despite changing EU regulations
  • High flexibility through low-code development in response to new legal requirements
  • High usability, developed in close collaboration with business users
  • Transparent management and control of all fishing data in real time
  • A model for Europe – numerous public authorities are adopting the FIT system

 

 

Project success

Given the complexity of the requirements and the scale of the project, we deliberately chose not to use the waterfall model or Scrum methodology, as such complexity calls for a particularly agile approach.

Christof Ansorge, Projektleiter BLE

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