Minimum standards for designing and implementing Electronic Monitoring systems in Indian Ocean tuna fisheries

In addition to catch and effort fishery-dependent information collected through logbooks and/or port-sampling of commercial vessels, observer data is key to compile, complement and verify fishery activity information. Electronic monitoring (EM) using cameras and other sensors is a proven technology that has been widely used for various purposes on fishing vessels, primarily in industrial fleets. EM systems include equipment that tracks a vessel's position and activity, together with cameras that record key aspects of the fishing operations. EM has been used extensively for this purpose to obtain reliable information on catches and their composition, as well as to monitor and collect data on bycatches of protected species (ETP).
EM pilot tests in different regions on tuna purse seiners and longline vessels, as well as in small-scale artisanal fisheries, have demonstrated the validity of this technology to improve the collection of fishery. However, before considering the wide application of any EM in general, and particularly in tuna fisheries, EM minimum standard for the installation, collection, analysis and storage of data are needed. Moreover, it is also particularly important to assess the congruence between EM and observers-collected fishery data, to verify the capability, and ensure the replicability and accuracy of the information collected through EM (e.g. collection of the same data fields, with information comparable to those collected by human observers) with the purpose of improving the stock assessment and management process.
Thus, this document aims to progress on the development of EM minimum standards, including specifications and procedures, for the implementation of Electronic Monitoring Systems for IOTC fisheries, as well as evaluate EMS’ capabilities to collect the ROS minimum standards data fields as per latest requirements.

Also included as an Information Paper at WGEMS 2021