Gathering Fishery-Dependent Data in the Digital Age

There's plenty of initiatives both in the EU and across the pond in the US to further develop the integration of digital technology in order to collect, track and store catch data. Much of this work is being driven by the need for quota management accountability and stock assessment. Increasingly, fishermen are aware that the more data they have the more power and therefore potential control they have over the fisheries they target.  Arguing your case with nothing but anecdotal catch evidence together with landing data will not appease or meet the scrutiny of those who would have the industry held to account over over-fishing.




A guide for managers and scientists:

Why this guide?


Every day, more people are bringing digital data collection tools onboard fishing boats, from personal mobile phones to systems of integrated cameras and gear sensors. For managers, scientists, fishers, and anyone involved in ocean conservation, this presents opportunities to bring faster, more accurate data into management. This guide is to help you think through which tools might make sense for your fishery, and what questions to ask before adopting them.






Fisheries Innovation Fund

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), commercial and recreational fisheries had combined sales impacts of over $208 billion in the United States in 2015. However, some U.S. fisheries are struggling, both biologically and economically. As of 2017, NOAA reported that 35 stocks are categorized as overfished and 30 are categorized as subject to overfishing.

The Fisheries Innovation Fund releases two requests for proposals (RFPs) each year to work towards sustainable fisheries in the United States: a Fisheries Innovation Fund RFP and an Electronic Monitoring and Reporting Grant Program RFP.

Fisheries Innovation Fund RFP

NFWF launched the Fisheries Innovation Fund in 2010 to foster innovation in fisheries and seafood production in order to sustain livelihoods, working waterfronts and sustainable access to fisheries while rebuilding fish stocks. The fund supports the participation of fishermen and their communities in securing sustainable fisheries in the United States.

Fisheries Innovation Fund funding priorities include bycatch reduction, recreational fisheries and offshore aquaculture including activities to build community capacity and encourage sustainable use practices. Most projects have originated locally to address needs, challenges and opportunities at the community level.

Electronic Monitoring and Reporting RFP

The Electronic Monitoring and Reporting Grant Program was launched in 2015. The program seeks to advance NOAA’s sustainable fisheries goals to partner with fishermen, stakeholders, state agencies and Fishery Information Networks to systematically integrate technology into fisheries data collection and observations, and streamline data management and use for fisheries management. The program aims to improve the quality, quantity, and timeliness of fisheries-dependent data. Projects awarded under this opportunity catalyze the implementation of electronic technologies for catch and compliance monitoring, and improvements to fishery information systems.

To date, the Fisheries Innovation Fund has awarded grants totaling over $20.3 million to 127 projects across 26 states, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. These awards have been matched by over $22.5 million dollars from the grantees, for a total conservation impact of $42.8 million.

Major funding for the Fisheries Innovation Fund is provided by NOAA, the Walton Family Foundation, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation and the Kingfisher Foundation. Mitigation funds received through NFWF's Recovered Oil Fund for Wildlife have also contributed to the program, with grantee organizations and additional public and private funders providing matching funds.



Monitoring

New Report Shows Ending EU Overfishing and Protection of Privacy Achievable With Remote Electronic MonitoringBrussels, March 7, 2019:- A report published today, Legal Opinion on Video Monitoring on Fishing Vessels with Special Focus on Other Comparable Cases, shows that the use of video monitoring, or Remote Electronic Monitoring (REM), can be used on board EU fishing vessels to ensure proper catch reporting, and to end illegal discarding of fish under the EU’s Landing Obligation, without impinging on privacy, or contradicting data protection rules.

The report, commissioned by Our Fish, demonstrates that while there are justifiable concerns around REM, these are not reason for inaction. Other sectors, such as the meat industry, are dealing with the same challenges, showing that it is possible to have effective monitoring while conforming to data protection requirements.

“Protecting privacy while ending the wasteful practice of discarding dead and dying fish at sea can be achieved by using video monitoring on board fishing vessels”, said Rebecca Hubbard, Program Director of Our Fish.

The EU’s ban on discarding dead or dying fish back into the sea, known as the Landing Obligation (LO), was part of the 2013 reform of the Common Fisheries Policy, and strongly supported by EU citizens. The aim of the Landing Obligation is to end discarding and drive change in fishing practices, e.g. avoid catching unwanted and non-valuable fish, incentivise improvements in selectivity, count everything that is caught, and promote ecosystem-based management.

However five years on, the European Fisheries Control Agency (EFCA) has assessed that a majority of fishing activities using active gears, e.g. trawling, are still at risk of discarding, along with increased illegal and unreported fishing. In response, the European Commission is proposing to use a review of its Control Regulation to introduce Remote Electronic Monitoring (REM) [1]; however concerns have been raised over privacy and data protection.

“This legal analysis demonstrates that privacy and data protection are not barriers to video monitoring of fishing. Programming and video technology can avoid impinging on privacy and personal data, vessel operators can own the footage, and governments and scientists can utilise the data to audit records allowing for greater knowledge of catches, fish stocks, and ultimately achieve better fisheries management”, continued Hubbard.

“It is essential that EU decision-makers take a solutions-based approach to implementing onboard video monitoring, so that we put an end to widespread illegal, unreported fishing, which undermines ocean health, consumer trust and the industry”, said Hubbard.

For video monitoring on board fishing vessels to comply with the Landing Obligation and to fully document fisheries, Legal Opinion on Video Monitoring on Fishing Vessels with Special Focus on Other Comparable Cases suggests that legislators and operators should consider:

CCTV surveillance of risk groups: When there is cause to suspect non-compliance with legal requirements, temporary monitoring of the fishing activities would be appropriate.

• Avoiding personal data: Monitoring only the technical process without making individuals identifiable. This would also mean the GDPR would not apply [2].
• Anonymisation: Monitoring the entire process and pixelating any recorded persons in such a way that identification is not possible.
• Data minimisation: Limit the video monitoring to a minimum time i.e during landing, sorting and processing the catch.
• Data ownership and review: Vessel operators may be the owners of the footage, the review conducted by a third party, and the resulting data provided to governments for auditing purposes of catches and landings. 

This audited data could also be shared with other interested or relevant parties such as scientists.


NOTES:

[1] Control Regulation: https://ec.europa.eu/fisheries/cfp/control_en

[2] Since May 2018, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) covers data protection and privacy for all individuals in the European Union (EU) and the European Economic Area (EEA), and covers the transfer of personal data outside the EU and EEA. It gives control of data to individuals while simplifying the legislative framework for data managers.

Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data. 

Contacts

Dave Walsh, Our Fish Communications Advisor, dave@our.fish +34 691826764

Rebecca Hubbard, Our Fish Program Director, rebecca@our.fish +34 657669425

About Our Fish

Our Fish works to ensure European member states implement the Common Fisheries Policy and achieve sustainable fish stocks in European waters.

Our Fish works with organisations and individuals across Europe to deliver a powerful and unwavering message: overfishing must be stopped, and solutions put in place that ensure Europe’s waters are fished sustainably. Our Fish demands that the Common Fisheries Policy be properly enforced, and Europe’s fisheries effectively governed.

Our Fish calls on all EU Member States to set annual fishing limits at sustainable limits based on scientific advice, and to ensure that their fishing fleets prove that they are fishing sustainably, through monitoring and full documentation of their catch.

Website: https://our.fish

Follow Our Fish on Twitter: @our_fish

Next up:

Adding to the mix on tech in the fishing industry - just yesterday at the World Congress Summit in Dubai EDF launched its Smart Boat Initiative:

New initiative to harness digital revolution to accelerate sustainable networked fisheries

(Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates – March 6, 2019) Today at the World Ocean Summit being held in Abu Dhabi, Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) announced the launch of its Smart Boat Initiative designed to accelerate the exploration and adoption of powerful new technologies to greatly improve sustainability, efficiency and profitability in the fishing sector across the globe.

The new initiative focuses on leveraging the technological advances and plummeting costs in sensors, artificial intelligence, broadband communication and data analytics to equip and surround fishing vessels of all sizes with digital tools and infrastructure that can increase sustainability, accountability and transparency in fishing.

“Just as smart phones provided a platform for a wave of innovation, we believe there is an equally unprecedented opportunity to usher in a new era of sustainability in the global fishing sector led by digital transformation,” said Katie McGinty, Senior Vice President, EDF Oceans program.

The Smart Boat Initiative builds on important work being done by a variety of other NGOs, academic institutions, businesses and governments all focused on deploying technology in the service of sustainability. EDF’s goal is to work with these stakeholders and fishermen to demonstrate the transformative power of technology with on-the-water pilot projects, scientific inquiries and policy advances across a variety of fishery types and scales.

As part of the Smart Boat Initiative, EDF Oceans released a new report on the significant opportunities of using advanced technologies to help fisheries and fishing businesses, two new guides on how to implement electronic monitoring technology, as well as the results from recent pilot projects on the U.S. West Coast and in Mexico’s Gulf of California.

With this initiative, EDF aims to address the critical problem of fishing vessels and fleets remaining isolated and disconnected when at sea. This means accurate and timely data about what is being caught and discarded rarely reaches scientists and managers. Even on vessels with human observers or new electronic monitoring systems, data can take weeks or even months to reach the end user. Meanwhile, fishermen at sea lack access to oceanographic, market and other real-time data that could inform their choices about where and how to fish.

These problems can be addressed through a combination of existing technologies that can be deployed on fishing vessels – and around them – at a variety of scales. For example, cameras on fishing vessels can be linked to pneumatic sensors and triggered only when fishing activity occurs. These data can then be highly compressed and transmitted wirelessly through broadband satellite or near-shore wireless data services. Artificial intelligence can also recognize species and help track catch. Scientists can access these data in near real time and make far better decisions about fishery health than ever before. And fishermen will have better access to supply chains and better information out at sea.

“This new initiative seeks to deploy technology to help solve one of the most urgent challenges of our time, overfishing,” said McGinty. “A critical element of the initiative is that it aims to provide fishermen with the tools to play a leading role in solving that problem.”

Even in countries with advanced management like the U.S., fishery monitoring is conducted with outdated systems, often a human observer using pen and paper. In countries with a higher proportion of small-scale fisheries, the data information gap is even more acute. As a part of the Smart Boat Initiative, EDF is bringing together learnings from pilot programs in both commercial and artisanal fisheries that put cameras and telecommunications technology on vessels in order to track and record information to inform policy, science and management.

“In far too many fisheries, a lack of timely data frustrates even the best of intentions,” said Project Director Johanna Thomas. “But most fishermen want access to more powerful tools to take control of their futures and work together to deliver both business and conservation outcomes.”

EDF is also releasing two new guides on electronic monitoring focused on a wide variety of fishing scenarios from near-shore small-scale fisheries to larger fleets. These guides will provide insights to help develop best-in-class standards. They are designed to provide information on how best to use and scale these technologies in ways that can inform good science, work financially for fishermen and governments and produce positive conservation outcomes for fisheries.

“We believe this set of technologies represents widespread benefits, not only for future conservation, but also for fishermen today,” said McGinty. “But without more work to refine these technologies, build them with fishermen’s needs in mind, increase deployment and share best practices, fisheries will remain stuck in the digital dark ages. That’s why we’ve launched the Smart Boat Initiative and why we’re optimistic about the future health of the ocean and all those who depend on it.”

Fish recognition challenge.

Not for the first time Australian fisheries technology is leading the way in providing the latest technology to collect and collate fishing data in order to protect the livelihoods of fishermen and fish stocks.

Wanda in training for fish recognition challenge

The automated identification of harvested fish could improve confidence in the fishing sector and reduce the cost of surveillance

The use of artificial intelligence (AI) is coming to the Australian fisheries sector in the form of new software that can identify which fish are being landed on board a vessel based on video from electronic monitoring.

Called ‘Wanda’, the program uses advanced mathematical and computing techniques such as deep learning – a subset of AI – to automatically detect and identify fish species.

Wanda is the product of a CSIRO research collaboration between its Oceans and Atmosphere and Data61 divisions, with the Australian Fisheries Management Authority (AFMA) providing imagery to train the new software.

CSIRO fisheries scientist Rich Little says the software has so far been trained to recognise several species, including Yellowfin Tuna, with about 85 per cent accuracy. But with access to more images to help train Wanda, he anticipates this will increase to more than 90 per cent accuracy.

The development of Wanda began in 2016 when CSIRO Oceans and Atmosphere fisheries scientists Rich Little, Geoff Tuck and Rob Campbell teamed with CSIRO Data61’s Dadong Wang to explore the potential of a machine-learning product for species identification in fisheries.

In demand

Currently, electronic monitoring imagery is reviewed by people who identify different fish species. “But we realised this was a constraint on the current technology, and discovered there was a very large need nationally and internationally for our new program to automatically identify fish species and to remove this human element,” Rich Little says.

“As a commercial product the market is quite small; the most likely customers are typically regulatory agencies and resource managers.”

However, the potential application of the technology continues to expand as more countries introduce on-board electronic monitoring in their fisheries. Wanda sits amongst a cohort of similar initiatives being developed around the world, including those led by the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization and another led by Queensland’s Department of Agriculture and Fisheries.

In Australia, AFMA has mandatory electronic monitoring on 75 vessels operating in the Eastern Tuna and Billfish Fishery, the Western Tuna and Billfish Fishery and the Gillnet, Hook and Trap Fishery. Electronic monitoring technology potentially offers a cost-effective alternative to aspects of the human on-board observer programs that still operate in many fisheries.

Human observers are required to monitor a certain percentage of activity in various fisheries to meet assessment targets and enable effective data analysis. This can vary greatly – anywhere from five to almost 100 per cent of activity, depending on the fishery and what observers are looking for, with an average of about 10 per cent.

Likewise, only a small proportion (usually 10 per cent) of the thousands of hours of video collected by electronic monitoring is actually reviewed. The reasons for this vary; for example, only a small percentage of footage actually captures fishing activity. However, AI has a real potential to streamline and reduce the reviewing costs, while increasing the amount of video actually reviewed.

There is potential for electronic monitoring to be used in other Australian Commonwealth and state fisheries. It has also recently become mandatory in some New Zealand and Chilean fisheries.

“It’s a growing trend, worldwide,” Rich Little says. “And with the right training, Wanda will be able to assess all of the available video, rather than a small fraction. We think we will be able to help further reduce the costs of monitoring through the automatic identification of species.”

Transparency

While species identification features will begin with target catch species, it is likely to expand to byproduct and bycatch species as well as threatened, endangered and protected species.

Rich Little says increasing the amount of fishing time actually scrutinised has the potential to significantly increase public confidence in the fisheries sector. From both a management and an industry perspective, it will provide greater evidence of compliance – that fishers are doing the right thing, and are known to be doing so.

From the initial concept, when it came to developing the software Rich Little and Geoff Tuck joined with Dadong Wang at Data61 for expertise in the computer vision and machine learning processes.

Initial video training has used test data from AFMA, but really requires thousands of images all up. But it’s not just a matter of identifying a fish. The program needs to be able to identify where in each frame the fish is – often as it is sliding across the deck of a working fishing boat.

In the early stages of training, this means someone needs to find the fish and graphically put a binding box around it so that Wanda can ‘learn’ where the fish is and what it looks like.

The more images used in training, the more accurate the results. While imaging technology continues to make huge gains, the sophistication required to distinguish certain species is likely to make it impossible for wholesale use.

Recognising the long-term savings available to industry of this technology, AFMA is keen to work with CSIRO to provide access to imagery from its Eastern Tuna and Billfish Fishery (ETBF), which has the longest and most extensive video dataset in Commonwealth fisheries.

“As the ETBF is a longline fishery, it generally brings fish on board one at a time – unlike a trawl fishery – and this will make training and identification easier,” Rich Little says.  Swordish, and Yellowfin, Albacore and Big Eye Tuna are likely to be the focus of the initial AFMA case study designed to demonstrate Wanda’s effectiveness.

A postdoctoral researcher will be employed as part of a three-year project to refine Wanda. But with the new dataset, Rich Little says results with high accuracy could be achievable in six to eight months.


Significant issues of bycatch, biosecurity and environmental benefits are being addressed through new technology that gives trawl-net fishers ‘eyes in the net’.

While camera technology is becoming an essential part of on-board monitoring for fisheries compliance, it is also being applied to improve the efficiency of trawl fishing.

DigiCatch is the name of a new ‘precision fishing technology’ developed by US company SmartCatch. CEO Mark Dahm presented at last year’s Seafood Directions conference, saying the system has provided a two per cent reduction in bycatch for some users, which could be worth up to $100,000 to a trawl business. It provides ‘eyes in the net’ via real-time, high-definition video that allows fishers to see what they are capturing – at depths of more than 900 metres – before the catch is landed on deck.

Combined with another SmartCatch innovation, SmartNet, fishers can release non-target species from the net underwater through a pre-catch release system. Mark Dahm said it allowed fishers to maximise catches of target species within quota, while avoiding non-target species that could lead to fines or potential fishery closures.

Additional digital sensors also convey information about salinity, depth, location and acidity – information that is vital for biosecurity and traceability, which is becoming increasingly important in seafood markets as consumers demand detail on seafood origin.

Mark Dahm, whose background in technology includes more than 25 years working in Silicon Valley, in the US, said it was his passion for the sea that led him to apply his technology skills to the fishing industry.

The DigiCatch technology was voted the Gold Winner for Innovation in Sustainable Solutions in the 2016 Edison Awards and is being used by some major players in the North American seafood industry fishing in the Bering Sea.

While the technology has initially been expensive, costing about US$40,000 (A$53,7500) a system, Mark Dahm said the price was fast coming down and could be retrofitted to existing gear. Eventually, he said, the system could become cost-neutral as the data recorded by the technology builds and becomes more valuable.

“Data is the oil of our time and we believe the major commercial seafood companies, the government agencies and fishery councils will pay for that data and subsidise these devices on the boats so it becomes standard practice,” he said.

The technology could help sustain the fishing sector as well as fish stocks, helping fishers comply with regulations while providing consumers with the sustainable seafood they sought.

“We start right here with what begins with DigiCatch in the net capturing data at the point of capture ... and ultimately it’s about a great piece of protein on the plate,” he said. Mark Dahm said Smartcatch delivered on a triple-bottom-line objective to bring economic, ecological and social benefits.

“There is huge economic impact in being able to bring this type of technology to the seafood industry; there is the ecological component of building sustainable ocean technology to save our fish species and make our supply chain more efficient; and then there’s the social and the food security aspect ... and as we know, seafood is really good for us.”

More information and the full story from FRDC.

A toolkit for small scale fisheries routine data collection.

In the name of creating robust and transparent industry data Through the Gaps has long since been championing the cause for collecting fisheries data in real time - especially given the advances in technology that not only allow the easy creation of apps and software but also the ability to transmit data, live, in real time and affordably - if needed.  When a need is perceived and an industry responds at a grass roots level the resultant product is very often 100% fit for purpose - a local example would be the iCatch app developed for fishermen to pass on their monthly shellfish returns - developed for fishermen by someone who fully understands the need - not something forced on them from above out of political expediency.

In Kenya, low tech phones are now responsible for a huge percentage of street trade - thanks to a simple app that allows people with even the most basic mobile phone to exchange goods for money - start watching Billionaire Deals and how they changed your world from 49m 33s to see just how the system works for even the smallest trader. So it is great to see another app developed for the benefit of small scale fishers that meets their needs - interestingly mobile phone technology is proving to be the great liberator for small (as in micro businesses) right across the African continent.  

Read on:

Among the major tasks of FAO is the promotion of improved approaches and techniques for the collection of data on agricultural statistics, including fisheries and forestry. The need for reliable and comprehensive statistics has always been extremely important, all the more so at the present time, as they provide the essential basis for planning sustainable harvesting and environmental
protection within a precautionary approach.

Collection of basic data on catches, fishing effort and prices provides the primary data for a wide variety of statistical applications. In addition, more detailed data extracted from regularly conducted sample-based fishery surveys–notably those relating to fishing vessels, gear and operations; socioeconomic data, etc–are an important source of fishery information with a broad scope and utility.

To help meet national needs for basic fishery data, FAO has been assisting countries in upgrading their data collection, processing and reporting capabilities. Technical assistance at the national and regional level is a significant component of the FAO technical units’ work programme, which
is responsible for the statistical development of fisheries and involves both normative and field programme activities.

FAO developed and made ARTFISH available to users in 1993. ARTFISH stands for Approaches, Rules and Techniques for Fisheries statistical monitoring. It has been developed as a standardized tool adaptable to most fisheries in developing countries. Its design was driven by the need to offer users robust, user-friendly and error-free approaches with computer software, and achieve the implementation of cost-effective statistical systems for fisheries with minimal external assistance. A major step in fisheries data collection systems was the development of the “Strategy for improving information on status and trends of capture fisheries” (the Strategy). This Strategy was adopted by
consensus at the Twenty-fifth Session of the FAO Committee on Fisheries (COFI) and endorsed by the One Hundred and Twenty-fourth Session of the FAO Council and by the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in 2003. The Strategy provides a practical framework for the improvement of knowledge, as well as an understanding of fishery status and trends.

During the implementation of a number of activities to support this strategy, it was recognized that a new, user-friendly version of ARTFISH was needed. With the support of FAO, tailor-made OPEN ARTFISH systems were developed in a number of African countries over the period 2011–2015. Furthermore, in 2015–2016 FAO successfully tested a mobile phone application for fisheries data
collection and its inclusion in OPEN ARTFISH.

With this manual and accompanying software, FAO provides the generic version of OPEN ARTFISH and the FAO ODK mobile phone application.