On May 22, 2023, The Pew Charitable Trusts convened 20 electronic monitoring (EM) service providers and other key participants to discuss ways to bolster their engagement at regional fishery management organizations (RFMOs). The workshop was organized in response to recommendations from the Global Electronic Monitoring Symposium (GEMS) which identified a critical gap in communications between EM service providers and those who develop EM programs at RFMOs, leading to a mismatch of EM expectations between the two groups.
The workshop participants, representing over 10 EM and artificial intelligence (AI) service providers, learned about high seas fisheries governance, the operation of RFMOs, and explored opportunities to collaborate in support of developing EM programs in tuna RFMOs. Participants reviewed the current draft EM standards developed at three of the five tuna RFMOs as well as the EM standards recently adopted by the IOTC. The workshop was a key step to better coordinate EM service providers engagement at the RFMOs and to support the development of compatible standards across ocean basins. The outcomes of the workshop are linked below.
