Center for Fisheries Electronic Monitoring at MOTE

Biography

The Center for Fisheries Electronic Monitoring at Mote (CFEMM) is the only program dedicated to developing and assessing electronic monitoring (EM) technology as a tool in the Gulf of Mexico commercial reef fish fishery to better meet the demand by industry and management for accurate, independent data to ensure long-term fishery health. Volunteer commercial fishers partner with CFEMM scientists and Saltwater Inc., an EM equipment and software provider, to have specialized cameras, a computer processor, and sensors installed on their fishing vessels. These systems record the trip length, speed, hydraulic pressure, location, and fishing events (sets, soaks and hauls) on a timeline. Video recordings (with no sound) are reviewed confidentially by the CFEMM Team to document fishing effort, total catch and bycatch of species per event and trip, species kept/discarded, and species disposition at capture and release. CFEMM scientists and partner Waterinterface LLC. analyze the collected data to demonstrate and improve the available technology and data products — including much-needed bycatch and discard data — for management of the valuable Gulf reef fish fishery. CFEMM scientists correlate their EM trip data with identifiers for other fisheries monitoring data from the same trips, including observer logs, dealer trip tickets, and biological sampling to augment datasets for management needs.