Dan Hull, Chairman
Chris Oliver, Executive Director
SUBJECT: title
Electronic Monitoring Integration (Initial Review); 2017 EM Pre-implementation Plan
end
STAFF CONTACT: Diana Evans
ACTION REQUIRED: recommended action
* Review Electronic Monitoring Integration Analysis, Initial Review Draft
* Review 2017 EM Pre-Implementation Plan
BACKGROUND:
EM Integration Analysis
The Council is considering a proposed management change to establish electronic monitoring (EM) as a part of the North Pacific Observer Program. The Observer Program collects data necessary for the conservation, management, and scientific understanding of the groundfish and halibut fisheries off Alaska. This document analyzes alternatives that would allow an EM system, which consists of a control center to manage the data collection, connected to an array of peripheral components including digital cameras, gear sensors, and a global positioning system (GPS) receiver, onboard vessels to monitor the harvest and discard of fish and other incidental catch at sea, as a supplement to existing human observer coverage. The analysis was developed with input from the Council's Fixed Gear Electronic Monitoring Workgroup.
As part of initial review in October 2016, the EM Workgroup encourages the Council to formally identify a preliminary preferred alternative. To date, at the Council's direction, EM program development in Alaska has focused primarily on an EM program as captured in Alternative 2, where EM data will be used for catch estimation. At this meeting, the Council is also reviewing the Draft 2017 EM Pre-Implementation Plan, for EM deployment in 2017, which has been developed based on the Alternative 2 model. While the pre-implementation work to date is applicable to either of the alternatives under consideration, the 2017 pre-implementation plan should be adapted to additionally test a catch logbook program, if the Council changes direction in favor of Alternative 3.
The EM Workgroup also rec...
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