According to the pres release EESG has been awarded the “Electronic Hails” contract by the Commercial Industry Caucus to service the Groundfish Hook and Line/Trap commercial fishing fleet in British Columbia. The department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) requires Catch to be weighed and verified by independent monitors when it is offloaded after a commercial fishing trip.
It is said that to get this software fishing vessels requires to provide notification to monitoring companies and the DFO prior to fishing, and when heading back to port after fishing. These notifications are referred to as “hails” and it can be provide by voice via satellite telephone. Problems with this approach include poor connections to satellites, often requiring skippers to make several attempts to call before establishing a connection.
If a satellite connection is not available immediately, the system will automatically re-try until the hail is sent. A major advantage of electronic hails is that the hail data entered by the skipper is not subject to errors from re-entry of the data. The system also provides automated confirmation via a return e-mail to the fishing vessel. This provides skippers, monitoring companies, and the DFO with unprecedented confidence in the accuracy of the hail data.
It is informed that the new software would be known as “EasyHails™” and will be available to vessels with an onboard PC that can send and receive e-mail via satellite. The electronic hail system is the first of many modules under development by EESG. Future modules will include electronic catch logs that skippers can fill in at sea, as well as data capture in the field for dockside monitors and observers that are placed onboard vessel to monitor activity onboard while at sea.
