My 20-plus years of experience in supply chains began in Ecuador where I worked as a farm manager, quality assurance manager, auditor, trainer, and with the pelagic longline industry. I understand the complexity of the seafood supply chain, synergies across diverse fields, disciplines, and people. A milestone in my career was the creation of the Chain of Custody onboard (compartmentalization) for the first tuna purse seine MSC certification (partial certification) in the PNA countries, that opened access to global tuna markets for millions of metrics tons of MSC-certified tuna. This involved issues around traceability protocols, catch documentation, Monitoring Control and Surveillance, Vessel Monitoring System, IUU, electronic reporting, and the Integrated Fishery Management System (iFIMs). I have also worked with SPC, WCPFC, MINRA, NORMA, NFA, and FFA.

I have consulted in more than 60 countries with fishing companies, fishers, governments and NGOs, all with a common goal: to take care of the ocean and the people that depend on it.

Dr Lachlan Fetterplace is an Environmental Assessment Specialist at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU AQUA). He has extensive experience in camera-based research and aquatic monitoring in Australia and Scandinavia. Lachlan is working on various camera-based projects (both underwater and above water), including assessing the feasibility of electronic monitoring of bycatch in small-scale Swedish fisheries.

I have a BSc in Zoology from the University of Calgary and an MSc in Marine Biology from Memorial University of Newfoundland. My experiences have focused on the development and implementation of sustainable fishing practices in Canada. I currently work as a Senior Project Coordinator with Archipelago, where I interact with representatives from the fishing industry, government agencies, and NGOs to ensure that our fisheries monitoring programs meet the needs of all stakeholders.

Fishing for data! Collaborative integration of sensors with fishing can fill some of the most pressing gaps in our sustained ocean monitoring. Fishing vessels operate exactly where autonomous platforms cannot, leading to a surprising lack of data close to shore compared with the open ocean.

We enable cost-effective collection of ocean data, by equipping fishing gears with sensors. Profiles of temperature, salinity, and other essential ocean variables are measured, sent to the vessel, and then onto users in real time. Today a shortage of these data types holds back advances in dynamic ecosystem-based fisheries management, virtually every branch of oceanography, climate change monitoring, and many advances for the blue economy.

Alex is an award winning fisheries scientist based in Penang, Malaysia. He is the leader of the Resilient Coastal Fisheries research cluster for WorldFish. His work and research are focused on developing and testing innovative technological and social approaches to improve well-being, gender equality, and inclusive governance of aquatic foods. He is the creator of the PeskAAS open source system for fisheries monitoring.

As a Masters of Technology student, my research project is focused on fisheries sustainability, with an emphasis on the use of technology to support fisheries monitoring and management objectives, including protected species bycatch reduction. In particular, I’m currently exploring opportunities to try and automate the identification of seabird interactions in EM footage from longline fisheries using machine learning and computer vision.

Based in New Zealand, I’m always excited to connect with others working in fisheries EM and related issues around the world – please feel free to get in touch.