SITKA, Alaska (AP) - Ten fishing boats - five each from Sitka and Homer - are carrying electronic monitoring equipment as part of a pilot program to see if such tracking is more effective than having observers onboard in gathering data for fisheries management.
Longliners from the two communities have been participating in the pilot program by the Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association since early March, according to (https://bit.ly/1diMK3b) the Daily Sitka Sentinel.
The equipment consists of two cameras mounted on stabilizers that capture the image of every fish that comes over the rail along with GPS coordinates.
“We want to see (electronic monitoring) move ahead,” said Linda Behnken, ALFA executive director. “There have been over 40 (electronic monitoring) pilot programs in the U.S. but no programs have been implemented for catch monitoring.”
The federal observer program for larger vessels has been in place since 1990. The current program takes in boats 40 feet long and up. It began in January 2013 after approval from the Pacific Fishery Management Council in 2011.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) manages the observer program, using funding from a 1.25 percent tax on the ex-vessel value of the groundfish and halibut. The tax is assessed on all commercial fishermen, whether they carry an observer or not.
The small-boat fleet has objected to the onboard observer requirement as expensive and intrusive. They hope to show through the pilot project that electronic monitoring - such as the system used in British Columbia and elsewhere in the world - can reduce the need for observers, especially on the smaller boats.
Vessels 40 to 57.5 feet long this year are in the “vessel selection pool,” where they notify NOAA on fishing any time during specific two-month periods. A percentage of boats are then required to take an observer on every groundfish or halibut fishing trip during each two-month period. Vessel owners are not required to log trips with the agency.
ALFA has worked over the past few years on the effort to demonstrate that an electronic monitoring system is effective in collecting data, and providing most of the information that fishery managers need about the halibut and groundfish catches.
“We think having an observer is a whole lot more expensive,” said Behnken. “We’ve been trying for three years to develop an electronic monitoring system as an integrated part of the catch-monitoring program.”
Dick Curran of Sitka, skipper and owner of the 54-foot F/V Cherokee, is participating in the electronic monitoring pilot program. He said the gear is so unobtrusive that he isn’t even aware that it’s on board. Last year, he had an observer aboard for two months after his boat was chosen in the “vessel selection pool.”
“They’re OK,” he said of the observers. “But for a smaller boat it’s more of a logistics thing with space and stuff like that. Dealing with the camera is just easier.”
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Information from: Daily Sitka (Alaska) Sentinel, https://www.sitkasentinel.com/
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