The Alaska Sustainable Fisheries Trust (ASFT) has received a $293,000 grant from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation to expand electronic logbook and oceanographic data collection aboard Southeast Alaska salmon troll vessels.
The project will put data collection tools aboard 20 Southeast Alaska troll vessels, where fishermen will record catch information while deploying temperature and depth loggers. Paired with satellite connectivity, the system will allow information on catch composition and ocean conditions to be transmitted regularly during the fishing season.
The goal is to provide fishermen, researchers, and fishery managers with near real-time information that could improve stock assessments and support more adaptive fishery management decisions. For participating trollers, the electronic logbook will also provide a daily fishing record and a way to compare variables that may be affecting their catch.
The effort draws from an earlier era of industry-led data collection. From 1971 to 1991, Southeast Alaska trollers participated in a voluntary paper logbook program, recording similar information and sharing it with researchers and fishery managers.
ASFT will work with Real Time Data, or RTD, using the company's Deckhand application as the project's electronic data collection platform. RTD developed a workflow specifically for the troll fishery that allows fishermen to record catch and observations each day. Participating vessels will also receive Starlink satellite connections to transmit their data.
“We’re thrilled to see this project continue, and we look forward to working with fishermen to make at-sea data collection a smooth part of their daily fishing operation,” said Lange Solberg, president of RTD North America and a commercial fisherman. “Operator-driven data collection helps ensure a sustainable and economically prosperous future for the fishing industry.”
Ocean Data Network (ODN) will provide additional data collection support and help aggregate the information for managers, researchers and other stakeholders.
Jack Carroll, ODN's director of operations, said combining oceanographic measurements with the electronic logbook could help fishermen better understand how conditions below the surface relate to where salmon are found.
“Temperature at depth certainly plays a role in where fish are aggregating,” Carroll said. “This project will give us the hard data to actually find those correlations between catch and oceanographic conditions, providing participating captains with real-time feedback to inform fishing strategy.”
The project grew in part from the efforts of longtime Alaska fisherman Jim Moore, who participated in the original voluntary paper logbook program and pushed for bringing the concept into the electronic age.
“I am excited to see our project expand to scale and fully expect to see increased participation and support from our research partners as we continue to provide valuable real-time data for scientists, fishermen, and fisheries managers,” Moore said.
ASFT plans to recruit Southeast Alaska troll fishermen to participate during the 2028 and 2029 troll seasons. The organization said it is particularly interested in fishermen already tracking ocean conditions and interested in incorporating electronic data collection into their fishing operations.
