The Swedish Agency for Marine and Water Management (SwAM) has gone to Spanish company Satlink to develop a trial project that will evaluate the potential of electronic monitoring (EM) systems to digitally monitor and manage compliance with the landing obligation of all Swedish catches.
The project involves the design and implementation of Satlink’s electronic monitoring solution (called SeaTube) on two trawlers and a third system for land-based trials. The aim of the project is to ‘answer questions about how future fisheries control could work once EM has been fully introduced and how work using EM (technology, IT services, workflow etc.) needs to function in order to provide the desired benefits in terms of compliance with the landing obligation. EM could also be a way for the fishing industry to demonstrate to the world at large how fishing is conducted,’ a SwAM representative commented.
One of the expected results of the project is to improve SwAM’s understanding of the needs for the introduction of electronic monitoring, such as by developing procedures and methods for both operational fisheries control activities and for the digitalisation department within SwAM itself.
With this trial, SwAM is following the recommendations of numerous international regulatory bodies to use technological solutions to improve fisheries management and ensure more transparent and accountable practices.
Satlink will equip the vessels with one of the most advanced systems on the market for monitoring fishing activity and certifying good practices, which also complies with the fisheries control regulations of both the Swedish Government and the European Fisheries Control Agency (EFCA).
Each vessel will be outfitted with two high-definition cameras and hydraulic and proximity sensors that will exclusively record fishing activity. The equipment will transmit the information recorded by sensors and cameras to SwAM in real time via a robust 4G communications system. The Satlink system also includes an advanced Artificial Intelligence (AI) system that will automatically detect and blur the faces of fishermen in order to respect their privacy, a technology in which Satlink has pioneered in its use in real-time on-board vessels (Edge Computing).
SwAM will use Satlink View Manager (SVM) software to analyse the obtained data and generate reports that may include information such as catch composition, catch size, bycatch destination and fishing areas.
