Measuring congruence between electronic monitoring and logbook data in three Australian Commonwealth longline and gillnet fisheries — ASN Events

Measuring congruence between electronic monitoring and logbook data in three Australian Commonwealth longline and gillnet fisheries (#115)

Timothy Emery 1 , Rocio Noriega 1 , Ashley Williams 1 , James Larcombe 1
  1. Department of Agriculture and Water Resources, ABARES, Canberra, ACT, Australia

Electronic monitoring (EM) technologies have the capacity to collect fisheries-dependent data to support decision-making. Following successful pilot studies, EM was introduced in three Australian Commonwealth-managed fisheries in 2015: the Eastern Tuna and Billfish Fishery (ETBF); the Western Tuna and Billfish Fishery (WTBF) and; the Gillnet, Hook and Trap (GHAT) sector of the Southern and Eastern Scalefish and Shark Fishery (SESSF). For each fishery, we compared the reported catch of retained and discarded species, and interactions with protected species, between fisher logbooks and EM. Congruence between logbook and EM data for retained and discarded catch was higher in the ETBF and WTBF compared to the GHAT sector, although there was significant variation among species groups (e.g. target, byproduct and bycatch) and individual species. Congruence was high for some species (mainly target retained) but for others (mainly non-target discarded) there were clear taxonomic and reporting issues, which reduced congruence. Congruence for protected species interactions was higher in the GHAT than in both the ETBF and WTBF. This may reflect a greater emphasis on improving protected species reporting in the GHAT compared to the other fisheries, or simply a result of superior camera placement and crew operational procedures for releasing protected species.

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