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Commercial Fisheries News
Volume 33 Number 11
July 2006
Skymate addresses fishermen’s complaints; ramps up support
CHANTILLY, VA - Skymate, the lower-cost vessel monitoring system (VMS), has gone through some growing pains. But in recent months, the company has taken steps that fishermen say have gone a long way toward resolving their problems.
Early in the spring, a frustrated Maine fisherman asked Commercial Fisheries News to look into the system. He had put a Skymate unit on his vessel in September 2005 to comply with general category scallop requirements and had trouble from the start getting the system to properly report his intent to go fishing to the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS).
“I’d have to wait two, three, even four hours to get an acknowledgement,” he said. “I lost a couple of days fishing in the winter, about $10,000-$15,000 in lost days.”
Eric Brazer, a consultant to the Cape Cod Commercial Hook Fishermen’s Association (CCCHFA), which is conducting a cooperative research project on electronic fishing vessel trip reporting with Skymate, confirmed both the troubles and the fact that things were improving.
In early June, he characterized the problems as falling into three categories: missing trips and trips never showing up at the NMFS VMS office; differences in recorded trip start and end times; and fishermen being charged for the same transmission multiple times, causing service bills to go “through the roof.”
“They’re not 100% accurate yet,” Brazer said in mid-June, “but Skymate has taken some good steps toward resolving these problems.”
Ramping up
Lynn Tandler, Skymate’s chief operating officer, acknowledged that things didn’t go smoothly for all fishermen for several reasons.
In some cases new users had difficulty understanding how the system worked and how to operate it. And some of the problems were related to NMFS making changes in how information was reported, she said.
But first on Tandler’s list was the big jump in the number of Skymate users last fall when NMFS required VMS units to be placed aboard general category scallop boats that wanted to continue to work under the 400-pound trip limit.
“We captured 90% of the VMS sales back in the fall in the scallop fishery,” she said. “We grew really fast, and we weren’t quite ready yet.”
As of June 14, the NMFS Northeast Office of Law Enforcement said 687 Boatrac units, 692 Skymate units, and four Thrane & Thrane units were in use on fishing boats in the region. Thrane & Thrane’s Sailor VMS system was just certified for use in the Northeast by NMFS on May 26.
Improvements made
Tandler said Skymate had taken the following steps to address customer concerns:
Added staff to its technical support and customer support divisions;
Upgraded the company’s telephone system;
Signed a contract with a 24/7 call center to offer around-the-clock support; and
Put additional procedures and processes in place to more efficiently address customer questions.
“We didn’t have a set of technical problems,” Tandler said. “We needed to ramp up.”
A second Maine fisherman, who earlier reported having trouble, confirmed in June that his Skymate unit was working as it should. He attributed the improvement to software updates issued by Skymate.
“The new program has worked fine for me,” he said.
Tandler invited any fisherman who is having a problem with a Skymate VMS unit to call her directly at (703) 961-5800.
“We want fishermen to be able to fish. We’re getting ready for the next round of VMS requirements and we want to be even more ready,” she said.
Framework Adjustment 42 to the federal groundfish plan includes a proposal to require all vessels that intend to fish under a Northeast multispecies day-at-sea to have an operational VMS on board.
Back in April, NMFS National VMS Program Manager Jonathan Pinkerton said that the agency was aware of some complaints from Skymate users and that the company was working “toward solutions.”
Regardless of the type of VMS a fisherman has, if there’s a problem, NMFS wants to know about it.
“We encourage fishers to contact us with any issue they have with any VMS service provider,” Pinkerton said. “We will ensure that the appropriate office is notified and will track those issues to conclusion.”
Fishermen can call the VMS support center at (888) 219-9228 from 7 am to 6 pm Monday through Friday.
Lorelei Stevens
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