To get better data on what’s coming over the rails, three years ago Alaska fishery managers expanded onboard observer coverage for the first time to include halibut longline vessels less than 50 feet in length.

That’s prompted a push to replace those extra bodies aboard with electronic monitoring systems (EMS) already in use in other U.S. and Canadian fisheries.

“Those of us who live here know that some of these boats are too small to carry an extra person. There are bunk space issues, the wheel house is too small for them to spread all their stuff out and still be able to eat at the galley table and sometimes there’s just nowhere to put them on deck safely,” said  Dan Falvey, program director for the Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association in Sitka. 

Armed with funding from NOAA Fisheries and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, ALFA has been recruiting boats to field test an EMS  that includes a control center connected to GPS, cameras to monitor the lines for species identification, a deck camera to track discards and a seabird camera.  The system, provided at no cost through the EM Cooperative Research Program, is turned on only if a vessel is selected randomly for coverage prior to a fishing trip.    

“We’ll get it installed on the boats and next year before they go fishing, they log in their trip in and if the system says they have to have at-sea monitoring, they just flip the switch and fish like they normally do,” Falvey explained.

The goal is to equip up to 90 longline vessels and 30 pot boats of all sizes with EMS for next year; about 70 from Kodiak, Homer, Sitka, Seward and Petersburg had signed up by the September 20 deadline.   

Anyone interested should still register, Falvey said, as they may be included as funding permits, and they can also be part of future programs. Contact Liz Chilton by phone (206-526-4197) or email.