Dockside Monitoring

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Groundfish Dockside Monitoring Programs

January 01, 2005 British Columbia, Canada

Archipelago Marine Research Ltd. has been providing dockside monitoring services for the commercial groundfish fisheries since 1990. Since that time, Archipelago has been a leader in providing innovative solutions to increasingly complex fisheries and management regimes. DMPs have become as essential tool in the management framework for these fisheries and includes:

• Maintenance of key data collection and management systems including vessel hail (activity), catch, and sampling data
• Monitoring of all catch being offloaded from commercial vessels including documentation of product types and grades by species
• Rigorous sampling for stock assessment and other scientific research
• Compliance monitoring and reporting
• Data reporting for management and industry usage

Sablefish (1990 - Present)
The Sablefish DMP is in support of the Individual Transferable Quota sablefish fishery under a tri-party agreement with the Canadian Sablefish Association and Fisheries and Oceans Canada. Archipelago provides 100% coverage of sablefish landings in six coastal ports in BC throughout the year. In addition to core DMP requirements, Archipelago is responsible for the sablefish tag recovery program, including biological sampling of tagged fish.

Halibut (1990 - Present)
Established by Fisheries and Oceans and a majority of halibut licence holders, the Halibut DMP is in support of an Individual Vessel Quota management system. Archipelago has been contracted by either DFO or the Pacific Halibut Management Authority (an industry group) to conduct the Halibut DMP. Archipelago provides over 6,000 observer hours to monitor the annual quota of 10 million pounds of halibut landed in 19 ports in British Columbia, Washington and Alaska. In addition to the standard DMP responsibilities, the company is also responsible for a tagging program, applying uniquely numbered tags to all commercially landed halibut for marketing and compliance monitoring purposes.

Groundfish Trawl (1994 - Present)
In January 1994 Fisheries and Oceans Canada instituted a user-pay dockside monitoring program for the Canadian west coast groundfish trawl fishery. The trawl DMP supports the in-season Individual Vessel Quota Management the complex, multi-species fishery. Archipelago has been contracted to perform this work continuously since 1994. Although the original contracts were with Fisheries and Oceans Canada, the current contract has been awarded through the industry-based Canadian Groundfish Research and Conservation Society. Each year, approximately 2,500 offload events are monitored.

Hook and Line Groundfish (1995 - Present)
In 1995, Fisheries and Oceans Canada instituted a user-pay dockside monitoring program for the west coast rockfish hook and line fishery. Archipelago has held this contract since the first year including the addition of Schedule II fisheries (Lingcod and Dogfish) in 1996. The hook and line fishery consists of approximately 320 licenses which land in excess of 6,000 tonnes of groundfish each year.

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