The fisheries sector has long recognised the value of Electronic Monitoring (EM) as a tool for delivering trusted, transparent, and efficient fisheries management. In recent years, there has been a significant increase in the number of governments and fisheries management authorities implementing EM programmes, piloting new applications, or signaling their intention to introduce EM requirements across commercial fisheries. As EM adoption accelerates across jurisdictions, a fundamental challenge has become increasingly apparent: without common standards for exchanging data, vessels operating in multiple management areas may face differing and potentially conflicting reporting requirements, while regulators risk needing multiple systems and workflows to access, exchange, and interpret EM information. For many years, EM systems have largely evolved independently. Different hardware providers developed their own data structures, file formats, software platforms, and workflows. While innovation flourished, the lack of common standards has created barriers to data exchange, long-term archiving, regulatory cooperation, and vendor flexibility.
In 2026, an important milestone was reached. The ICES Workshop on Interoperability Standards for Electronic Monitoring Data (WKISEMD) brought together a diverse group of EM service providers, fisheries authorities, regulators, and technical experts from Europe and North America to address this challenge head-on. The result was the development of the first version of the Electronic Monitoring Interchange Format (EMIF): a provider-neutral, technology-independent standard for the exchange of EM data. More importantly, WKISEMD demonstrated something that is often difficult to achieve in competitive technology sectors: genuine collaboration between organisations that are frequently commercial competitors.
This is a story of how years of discussion matured into a shared vision, and how a committed group of experts transformed that vision into a practical and internationally-supported standard.
The Journey Started Long Before 2026
While WKISEMD represents a significant achievement, its roots stretch back several years. In 2021, the NetGains Alliance, supported by California Environmental Associates, convened EM service providers to discuss common challenges facing the industry. One of the key outcomes was the development of the “em xchange” concept a proposed framework for exchanging EM data between organisations and programmes.
The 2021 work was notable because it emerged directly from the EM provider community. Companies that would normally compete in commercial markets recognised that some problems were bigger than individual business interests. The industry needed ways to reduce duplication, avoid unnecessary complexity, and ensure that EM programmes could scale effectively. The recommendations from that work highlighted the importance of common standards, interoperability, and avoiding the creation of isolated technology ecosystems. Although the initial framework was never formally adopted as an international standard, it provided an invaluable starting point for future discussions.
The period between the 2021 NetGains recommendations and the launch of WKISEMD was also shaped by the continued efforts of the ICES Working Group on Technology Integration for Fishery-Dependent Data (WGTIFD). Through regular engagement with regulators, scientists, and EM service providers, WGTIFD helped keep the conversation on interoperability alive at a time when EM programmes were expanding rapidly across jurisdictions. The group provided an important forum for articulating the practical barriers faced by fisheries management authorities, including the challenges of operating multi-vendor programmes, exchanging information between jurisdictions, integrating data into national systems, and avoiding dependency on proprietary formats. In its 2024 multiannual resolution, WGTIFD formally identified the need to develop recommendations for interoperability of EM systems and to create a standardised interchange format for raw EM information, sensor data and associated metadata. This work helped mature the concepts first explored through the NetGains initiative, broadened engagement with EM providers, and ultimately laid the foundation for the workshop proposal that became WKISEMD. WKISEMD explicitly built upon this foundation. The workshop participants reviewed the earlier em xchange format, retained many useful concepts, and substantially expanded the approach to address new use cases, emerging technologies, and lessons learned over the intervening five years. The final WKISEMD report formally acknowledges the 2021 NetGains work as a key foundation for EMIF development.
Why Interoperability Matters
Interoperability allows different systems, organisations, technologies, and processes to work together without requiring bespoke translation, duplication of effort, or dependency on a single provider. It creates the conditions for choice, competition, innovation, collaboration, and long-term accessibility of information. In the context of fisheries electronic monitoring, these benefits become increasingly important as programmes expand across jurisdictions, organisations, and fleets.
Without common standards, several challenges emerge:
- Regulators may need multiple software systems to access data from different providers.
- Vessels operating in multiple jurisdictions may face conflicting technical requirements.
- Historical datasets can become difficult to access if proprietary software is no longer available.
- Innovation can be constrained when hardware and software ecosystems become tightly coupled.
- Data exchange between countries and agencies becomes more complex and expensive.
WKISEMD recognised that solving these challenges required a format that was not tied to any particular vendor, product, software platform, or jurisdiction. The goal was not to standardise EM systems themselves, but to standardise how raw data could be exchanged between trusted parties. This distinction is important. Innovation in EM hardware, artificial intelligence, data review tools, and operational workflows should continue. Interoperability standards do not reduce innovation; they enable it by ensuring that new solutions can participate within a shared ecosystem.
A Remarkable Collaborative Effort
One of the most impressive aspects of WKISEMD was the breadth of participation. The workshop included representatives from leading EM providers, fisheries authorities, government organisations, research institutions, and technical experts from the United Kingdom, United States, Canada, France, Spain, Sweden, Norway, and Denmark. Participants included organisations such as Anchorlab, Archipelago, Cefas, CVision AI, Defra, FishMon365, FlyWire, Integrated Monitoring, Marine Directorate, NE Marine Monitoring, NOAA, Satlink, Sinay, Thalos, Working Ocean Strategies, and Zunibal among others.
The workshop itself was delivered through four online working sessions between April and June 2026, followed by an in-person meeting in London and a final online session. Importantly, discussions were conducted in line with the ICES guidance on the process for achieving consensus. Participants explored alternative approaches, debated technical details, and considered a range of operational perspectives. According to the workshop report, opportunities were provided for participants to dissent from proposed outcomes, yet all participants ultimately supported the standards developed through the process.
In an industry where companies frequently compete for contracts and market share, achieving consensus on a shared technical standard should not be underestimated. It represents a level of maturity within the EM community and a shared recognition that interoperability benefits everyone.
The Birth of EMIF
The primary output of WKISEMD was the first version of the Electronic Monitoring Interchange Format (EMIF). EMIF provides a standardised approach for describing and packaging four core components of EM data:
- System configurations
- Event records
- Sensor data
- Media files (including video and imagery)
The format uses open, JSON-based structures designed to be understandable, extensible, and technology independent. It also incorporates mechanisms for documenting provenance, maintaining data integrity, and supporting future technical development. A particularly important design principle was the adoption of a dataset-based approach. Rather than focusing on individual files in isolation, EMIF describes complete datasets associated with a vessel and a defined period of activity, enabling information to be exchanged and interpreted consistently across organisations.
The workshop deliberately focused on delivering a practical minimum viable standard rather than attempting to solve every possible future requirement. This pragmatic approach helped ensure that tangible progress was made while leaving room for future evolution.
Designed Around Real-World Use Cases
The workshop did not develop EMIF in a vacuum. Development was guided by four clear operational use cases that reflect genuine, and current, industry needs.
- The first was enabling a single EM service provider to transfer information to multiple trusted partners without repeatedly transforming data into different formats.
- The second was decoupling EM hardware from review software, reducing reliance on proprietary ecosystems and enabling organisations to choose the tools that best meet their needs.
- The third was ensuring the long-term usability of archived datasets. Fisheries authorities should remain able to access and use historical data regardless of whether the original hardware provider is still operating or supporting legacy systems.
- The fourth was preserving evidentiary integrity and chain of custody, ensuring that EM records remain trustworthy and defensible across organisational and jurisdictional boundaries.
These are practical objectives with significant operational value. Together, they establish a strong foundation for future EM programme growth.
Success Beyond the Technical Specification
The publication of EMIF is important in its own right, but the workshop’s greatest success may lie elsewhere. WKISEMD demonstrated that interoperability is not simply a technical challenge it is a governance and collaboration challenge. The workshop created a neutral environment where providers, regulators, and end-users could jointly design a solution that serves the broader interests of fisheries management. Instead of attempting to impose a standard from above, WKISEMD built consensus through participation.
This matters because adoption ultimately determines success. Even the most elegant technical specification will fail if stakeholders do not support it. One of the strengths of the ICES intergovernmental marine science organization is that it provides an open and inclusive forum. Participation in WKISEMD was open to all interested stakeholders and was successful in attracing representation from the majority of global EM service providers alongside regulators and technical experts. This breadth of engagement helped create a standard grounded in real-world operational experience and has significantly strengthened the prospects for meaningful implementation.
The process also helped build trust between organisations. Participants gained a shared understanding of each other’s operational realities, constraints, and priorities. Those relationships will remain valuable as the standard continues to evolve.
Looking Ahead
The workshop participants were careful to acknowledge that EMIF is a beginning rather than an endpoint. The report identifies several areas for future work, including governance arrangements, validation tools, compliance checking, support for reviewed EM data, and further alignment with existing international standards. To maintain momentum, WKISEMD recommended establishing dedicated governance arrangements through ICES, ensuring that the standard can continue to evolve in response to industry and regulatory needs. The workshop also recommended further work on validation schemas and integration within the wider ICES data standards ecosystem.
These recommendations recognise an important reality: interoperability is not a one-time deliverable. It is an ongoing commitment. The success of EMIF will depend on continued collaboration, implementation, testing, and refinement.
Fortunately, the workshop has already demonstrated that the EM community is capable of working together effectively to achieve these goals.
A Model for Future Collaboration
In many respects, WKISEMD offers lessons that extend beyond electronic monitoring. The workshop showed that competitors can collaborate when there is a shared recognition that collective progress benefits everyone. It showed that regulators and industry can work together constructively. And it demonstrated that practical, consensus-based solutions can emerge when stakeholder engagement is prioritised from the outset.
The resulting EM Interchange Format represents a significant step towards a more open, flexible, and interoperable future for fisheries electronic monitoring.
But perhaps even more importantly, WKISEMD demonstrated that the EM community has the willingness, expertise, and collaborative spirit needed to tackle complex international challenges together. For a sector increasingly reliant on high-quality digital data, that may prove to be the workshop’s most enduring achievement.
Dr. Helen Holah is a Fisheries Data Analyst and Advisor in the Sea Fisheries Team at the Scottish Government’s Marine Directorate. Holly McBride is the Electronic Technologies Coordinator in the Office of Science and Technology at NOAA Fisheries.
