Working Group on Technology Integration for Fishery-Dependent Data (WGTIFD; outputs from 2022 meeting)

Erratum (20/02/2023): minor corrections 

The Working Group on Technology Integration for Fishery-Dependent Data (WGTIFD) examines electronic technologies and applications developed to support fisheries-dependent data collection, both on shore and at sea, including electronic reporting (ER), electronic monitoring (EM), positional data systems, and observer data collection. WGTIFD has diverse membership including technology service providers, academic and governmental marine institutions, and non-profit environmental organizations, across a wide range of EU, US, and additional fisheries from the world. 

The primary objective of this report is to summarize the discussions held over two 3-day period of the WGTIFD that met in Lisbon, Portugal and Galway, Ireland between the 7-9 June and 18-20 October 2022, respectively. In the first meeting, the discussions were centred on pelagic trawl fisheries regarding ToR C: evaluate risks/benefits of ETs across different fisheries and provide specific guidance on developing monitoring tools for specific types of fisheries; and ToR D: develop and publish a standardized format for data collected and analysed from EM systems. Pelagic (trawl) fisheries were chosen due to the recent interest by some countries in Europe and North America in implementing new EM programs. In the second meeting, discussions focused again on ToR D but applied to all fisheries, and on ToR E: provide guidance and best practices on drafting RFPs and CFTs for different types of EM programs.

Based on the discussions held during the two 2022 meetings, WGTIFD developed guidance on how to integrate fishery monitoring goals into data collection, best practices for developing and managing vessel monitoring plans (VMPs), and recommendation for implementing various ETs in pelagic (trawl) fisheries. WGTIFD also developed a number of important products under ToRs D and E. WGTIFD drafted an initial electronic monitoring data specification to help progress towards standardizing the data products collected from EM systems. On ToR E, WGTIFD made significant progress collating the dozens of requests for proposals (RFPs) and calls for tenders (CFTs), developing best practices and guidance for drafting an RFP/CFT, as WGTIFD works towards developing a standard RFP/CFT template for governments and others to use in acquiring hardware and services from EM service providers.