Fisheries Circular/February 2023: Benchmarking intergovernmental organizations' development of minimum standards for fisheries electronic monitoring systems

This brief report benchmarks the status of the development of minimum standards for fisheries EM systems by intergovernmental organizations and arrangements. Minimum standards for fisheries EM systems are needed to define technical specifications for selecting, installing, operating and maintaining EM equipment (e.g., cameras, sensors and data storage devices) and software; logistical specifications related to how EM data are stored and transferred; minimum requirements for EM analysts and their accreditation; and operational specifications on EM data fields and data collection protocols and on how EM data are reviewed (Restrepo et al., 2018; ACAP. 2021; IATTC, 2020, 2021a; IOTC, 2021a).

The study scope included 15 regional fisheries management organizations and arrangements (RFMO/As) and 4 intergovernmental bodies with remits broader than managing fishery resource, listed in Table 1.