Electronic Monitoring

Project Summary >

BC Area A Crab Fishery

Purpose: Trap and Effort Monitoring

January 01, 2005 British Columbia, Canada

The Area 'A' crab fishery, involves a fleet of about 50 vessels fishing for Dungeness crab in northern British Columbia. During the 1990's, the crab fishery markedly intensified in terms of catch, the number of vessels involved and amount of trap gear deployed. Escalation of the fishery resulted in a dramatic increase in fishing effort with over 50,000 traps being deployed. Another emerging problem occurring as a result of increased fishing effort was the intensified level of conflict among fishery participants. Gear concentration is high and concern arose that fishers were removing catch from each other's traps or cutting lines that are tangled with their own gear. There were also suspicions that some fishers simply hauled other's gear without deploying any of their own. Fishers estimated that some fishers were loosing as much as $CDN 100,000 a year from these illegal activities.

In the 2000 fishery year, fisheries authorities implemented a trap limit program in order to bring the total gear in the fishery to below 36,000 traps. The program designated allocations by vessel, with limits of 600 to 1,200 traps being assigned depending upon vessel size. A monitoring program was developed to monitor vessel trap limits and to control catch and gear theft. Archipelago began worked with the Area 'A' Crab Association to develop a monitoring program that was both affordable and effective.
The fishery adopted an automated approach using a custom designed EM system, developed by Archipelago. All vessels in the fishery were equipped with an EM system that automatically logs various data during all fishing trips. Digital video technology surpasses its tape-based predecessor, allowing higher image storage capacity and the ability to directly access specific imagery. GPS information provides pinpoint accuracy in a fishery where distances of a few meters can be critical. Another important sensor in the EM system is a hydraulic pressure transducer to monitor work conducted by the vessel's winches. Oscillations in hydraulic pressure correspond to trap hauling and can be easily detected in the data record.

One of the main technical challenges of the EM system was individual identification of the 36,000 traps in the fishery. After initial frustrations with bar-code tags and readers, Radio frequency identification (RFID) technology was adopted and soon proved the only way to accomplish trap identification given the large number of traps, the fast pace of trap hauling and setting operations, and the wet, dirty conditions of the fishing deck. Each vessel marked their crab traps by inserting pre-assigned RFID read only tags into trap buoys. The buoy is passed over a scanner while the trap is being hauled, providing a simple and efficient means to identify the trap. The identity of traps is checked against the inventory to identify owner. If a violation is observed, the video clip and associated data are archived and reported. After completion of about fifteen days of fishing activity, the EM system is serviced and data retrieved for analysis. The analysis is focused on making an objective assessment of whether the vessel complied with fishing regulations. The EM data set provides a very powerful analytical tool because of the large volume and the interrelated information. Information from the GPS, RFID tags and hydraulic sensor is examined with database and GIS software to spot anomalous events, such as failure to scan traps. In such cases, the video imagery associated with the event is observed. Reports from the data analysis alert fisheries authorities and the Area A Crab Association to compliance issues in their fishery. As well, routine reports to fishers following analysis of sampled data outline any issues identified and provide positive feedback for good compliance.

Of equal importance to the design and operation of the EM systems are the rules that govern its' use. The monitoring service is provided through the Area A Crab Association and there are strict requirements to ensure fishers comply with the rules. During a fishing trip, fishers must keep the EM system unit continuously powered, not interfere with any of the sensors, and scan all traps when hauled. Failure to meet these requirements could result in fines being levied by fisheries authorities, or other penalties levied by the Association. Repeated violations could result in suspension of monitoring services, effectively causing fishing operations to cease until other monitoring arrangements could be made. Undoubtedly, monitoring costs for these displaced fishers would be very high.

After three years of operation support for the Area A Crab fishery monitoring program is very high. License holders balloted in December 2002 overwhelmingly supported a continued requirement for electronic monitoring in their fishery. Including the capital cost of the equipment and subsequent annual program expenses, the average annual cost for the monitoring service is about $10 CDN per trap, or less than 20% the cost of an at-sea observer program. The program is entirely funded by the fishing industry and there is widespread feeling that the system provided a significant deterrent, creating an unprecedented degree of order and co-operation in the fishery. Some fishermen feel that the equipment paid for itself in the first season through higher catch rates and lower gear loss. The fishery also changed because, for the first time, there was a sense of fairness in that all fishery participants were respecting the rules and being treated the same.

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