Electronic Eye: Electronic Monitoring Trial on a Tropical Tuna Purse Seiner in the Atlantic Ocean

Electronic Eye (EE) is an electronic monitoring systems based on the automatic photo taking and developed by Marine Instruments S.A. This system was developed with the aim of being an alternative, or a complement to human observers. The overall objective of this study was to test the use of EE on a tropical tuna purse seiner in the Atlantic Ocean, and determine the feasibility of the EE to reliably document fishing effort, set-type, catch, and bycatch on the tuna purse seine fishery. To achieve these objectives, EE and an observer were deployed simultaneously on a complete fishing trip. Based on this research, EE is a valid tool for monitoring number of sets, set-type and total tuna catch within the tropical tuna purse seine fishery; however some future adjustments are still needed for the monitoring of the bycatch. Thus, the EE system could be a complement to observers or even a real alternative, according to the final goals of a monitoring program.