At the Swedish University of Agricultural Science’s Department of Aquatic Resources (SLU Aqua), we are collaborating with commercial fishers on electronic monitoring projects to study bycatch of marin...

At the Swedish University of Agricultural Science’s Department of Aquatic Resources (SLU Aqua), we are collaborating with commercial fishers on electronic monitoring projects to study bycatch of marin...

DrivenData hosts data science competitions to build a bet...

Electronic surveillance of fishing vessels could help protect fisheries.

Sustainable fishing means tracking every fish caught. New...

Electronic monitoring (EM) is rapidly transforming how fishing vessels around the world collect data, serving multiple purposes for harvesters, processors, markets, and regulatory bodies. It’s increasingly viewed as an integral “first step” in the modernization of seafood supply chains.... But EM has never just been about cameras on boats. Demand is rapidly growing for defensible, standardized data-flows for all supply chain participants: from the harvesting skipper to the processor, to regulators and the marketplace. In this context, weight data plays a major role, especially “first weight,” captured when the harvesting vessel delivers, since it provides the foundational data point against which catch transfers, processing yields, sales records, and regulatory reporting can later be compared.

The health of our oceans—and the communities and economies that depend on them—hinges on our ability to sustainably manage industrial fisheries. Yet for decades, fisheries managers have lacked timely and reliable data to keep pace with the complexity of modern fishing operations. Electronic monitoring (EM) systems have significant potential to improve fisheries management and transparency

In mid-February 2026, our cross-organizational team of EM, Wi-Fi, AI, fisheries and labor rights practitioners arrived in Majuro, Marshall Islands. There, our team installed EM and Wi-Fi systems on three industrial longline vessels that had just come to port. Majuro is a thin arc of land where walking from the lagoon side to the ocean side takes only minutes—a geography that keeps space tight and logistics creative. Despite its narrow footprint, it hosts one of the world’s busiest fishing ports, making it a strategic hub for advancing transparency and crew welfare at sea.

Well, the authors we had lined up for this month’s feature article needed a little extra time, so I’ll take this opportunity to talk about some changes and new features on the way. As of March 31st, I’ll be handing off EM4Fish to my friend Huff McGonigal. Quite a few of you in the U.S. fisheries space already know Huff, as he’s been involved in many aspects of marine science and policy for 25-plus years. We met as consultants to Environmental Defense Fund’s Oceans program, where we worked to advance quota-based management policies. We also helped coordinate the 2014 and 2016 national EM workshops, which eventually—through some twists and turns and a successful grant application—served as a springboard for creating this platform.

Environmental Defense Fund, Future of Fish, and Sernapesca have issued an RFP for an EM pilot for the artisanal fleet in Chile. Here are the relevant documents: EM Pilot RFP EM Pilot RFP Technical

On a hot, humid day in February 2024 in Pago Pago, American Samoa, electronic monitoring (EM) service providers rushed to finish installing the last cameras and equipment onboard three Taiwanese longline vessels. The vessels were set to depart for a 4-6 month fishing venture across the Pacific, eventually ending their journey in Taiwan. Caught between the smell of processed tuna, cigarette smoke, and agarwood incense, our team sat on the deck of a longliner after many long days of conversations with captains and Indonesian crew about EM and satellite Wi-Fi.

Someday, it’s possible that AI will handle all monitoring and fisheries evaluation tasks, but for now these are still human endeavors for the most part. At Big Fin Scientific, we’re certainly evaluating AI to help with several aspects of the required workload but despite all the hyperbole and wish-lists (at least for some), truly dependable, robust AI solutions are a long way off. For those of the readership who feel humans present a near insurmountable advantage over bots for the foreseeable, BFS sends you a solid “huzzah”! Humans aren’t going to be replaced anytime soon.

Well, it seems that furloughs of NOAA Fisheries staff have our feature article for this month stuck in the review process. We've been looking forward to publishing an overview of Alaska-based EM initiatives, but the folks finalizing it have been sent home. We thought about cobbling something together last-minute, but chose instead to take a deep breath—several, in fact—and ponder the situation we find ourselves in. Bureaucracies are never perfect; in fact it often seems their imperfections are hardwired. This is not news. But we all benefit from having an effective, well-motivated federal workforce. And from having that workforce actually, you know, working. Whether or not we publish an article on time is not a big deal, but I've been involved with US fisheries for over 50 years, land and sea, and have relied on NOAA personnel in every single one of those years. Countless others—including many of you reading this—rely on them as well. Our nation's federal workers deserve better than they're getting, and so do the rest of us. We hope to see them back soon.

The Klamath Basin, spanning southern Oregon and northern California, is home to several native fish species now endangered or at risk of extinction, including Coho and Chinook salmon, Lost River suckers, and shortnose suckers. These species face mounting threats from habitat loss, declining water quality, failing recruitment, and other environmental changes. Amid these challenges, members of the Klamath Basin Fisheries Collaborative (KBFC) are making strides to modernize how fish data are collected and shared. The KBFC brings together over 30 organizations, including tribal governments, state and federal agencies, academic institutions, and watershed groups, working collectively to improve fish populations and habitat across the basin. At the heart of this effort is the development of a modernized data flow – streamlining submittal of field data collection to a web-based collaborative data system that enables faster access to standardized fish monitoring data.

Since its founding in 1986 on Cape Cod, Woods Hole Group (WHG) has been a trusted partner to the global marine community. As part of the French CLS Group, WHG combines decades of scientific expertise with state-of-the-art satellite and data technologies to support sustainable ocean management. With nearly 100 employees and dedicated regional offices in Delaware, Maryland, and Texas, WHG provides the tools necessary to meet the challenges of 21st century fisheries management and environmental stewardship. Our Sustainable Fisheries Management Business Unit operates at the intersection of technology, science, and regulation across three primary areas: Tracking and Monitoring, Catch and Quota Management, and Ocean Intelligence. These comprehensive services support commercial, small-scale, and recreational fisheries with reliable vessel monitoring, streamlined catch reporting, and advanced oceanographic insights, empowering fishers and managers alike to make better, faster, and more sustainable decisions.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) announce the 2024 – 2025 slate of projects for the Electronic Monitoring and Reporting Program (EMR). Fourteen new grants totaling nearly $4.9 million were awarded. The 14 awards announced leveraged $6.1 million in matching funds from the grantees, providing a