ACAP Guidelines on Fisheries Electronic Monitoring Systems

Citation
Gilman E, Goad D, Parker G, et al (2021) ACAP Guidelines on Fisheries Electronic Monitoring Systems. In: ACAP - Tenth Meeting of the Seabird Bycatch Working Group. ACAP SBWG10 Doc 14, Electronic Meeting
Abstract

As fisheries with seabird interactions increasingly use Electronic Monitoring (EM) systems to meet monitoring requirements, ACAP recognizes the need for guidelines for EM systems to meet objectives of monitoring seabird interactions. These ACAP guidelines define how fisheries EM systems can be designed to meet objectives of fisheries monitoring that are specific to seabird interactions with marine capture fisheries, as tasked by the 2019-2021 intersessional workplan for ACAP’s Seabird Bycatch Working Group. EM systems are increasingly being used to complement and replace conventional human onboard observer programs, and to initiate atsea monitoring where none previously existed. For fishing gear methods in which seabird bycatch is understood to be problematic (pelagic longline, demersal longline, trawl, set and staked gillnet and trammel net, drift gillnet, non-tuna purse seine) we identify data fields and define data collection protocols for EM systems to meet objectives. These ACAP partial EM guidelines can serve to inform and strengthen the development of guidelines and minimum standards for full EM systems.