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Commercial Fisheries News
Volume 33 Number 3
November 2005
Cameras vs. people? Electronic monitoring showing promise
CHATHAM, MA - At some point in the future, camera systems may replace some fisheries observer effort in the Northeast.
Last fall, the Cape Cod Commercial Hook Fishermen’s Association (CCCHFA) and a British Columbia-based company called Archipelago Marine Resources Ltd. cooperated on a pilot project to test the effectiveness of electronic monitoring (EM) in the Chatham longline fishery.
Archipelago is involved in EM programs in the Alaska mixed species trawl fishery, the Oregon midwater trawl fishery, and the Australian longline and trawl fishery, as well as in a number of Canadian fisheries.
Four CCCHFA vessels participated in the sea trials between Sept. 20 and Oct. 10, 2004. The boats were equipped with Archipelago’s EM system, which consisted of two video cameras tied into each vessel’s GPS receiver, hauler, and hydraulics.
The cameras were mounted on a moveable boom and aimed so that they recorded everything that came up during hauling. The cameras automatically turned on when the hauler came on, explained Mel Sanderson, CCCHFA program coordinator.
The four vessels made 24 trips and 136 set hauls and had either a National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) observer or a technician onboard during 21 of the 24 trips.
It works
Once the video tapes were collected, Archipelago technicians viewed them and identified, counted, and recorded every fish hauled up.
That information was then compared to observer information. The results indicated that the overall EM and observer totals were within 1.4 percent of each other.
A project summary included the following conclusions:
• “Depending on data collection requirements, EM could provide cost-effective augmentation or replacement of an observer program; and
• “EM systems can operate successfully on Cape Cod longline vessels without interfering in vessel operations.”
The project was funded by NMFS through the NMFS Northeast observer program.
CCCHFA is currently planning a second test project for the fall of 2006. This project will involve eight to 10 vessels over a six-week period in the haddock special access program, according to Sanderson, and will be funded by the Northeast observer program, CCCHFA members, and private foundations.
Lorelei Stevens
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