Electronic Monitoring and Electronic Reporting: Guidance & Best Practices

The Guidance & Best Practices Discussion Draft

As a part of a strategic effort, NOAA Fisheries released a Discussion Draft on electronic technologies with advice and best practices for NOAA Fisheries and Councils to evaluate, add to and apply (where applicable) in developing regionally-appropriate fishery dependent data collection programs utilizing electronic monitoring (EM) and electronic reporting (ER). The document includes principles consistent with the Agency’s April 2013 Policy on the adoption of electronic technologies and was informed by five white papers commissioned by the NOAA Fisheries leadership in 2012.

Document Contents

• A suggested roadmap of the steps and flow of decisions to assist in designing and implementing regionally-appropriate fishery dependent data collection programs that consider EM/ER tools
• Checklists for the six phases, including assessment, goal identification, program design, implementation and evaluation/feedback
• Examples of decision tools to evaluate the pros and cons of different EM/ER choices, including a sample comparative matrix analysis of EM/ER options
• EM/ER technical guidance, focusing on equipment, hardware, software, data handling, quality assurance, timeliness and infrastructure requirements of EM/ER
• Decision parameters for durability; enforceability; operability/maintenance; fish/catch handling procedures; confidentiality; data archiving; and dual governance and business uses of data
• Potential application of EM/ER in selected fisheries
• Regional case examples: a VMS application in the Northwest; an ER application in the Northeast; and an EM application in Alaska
• Short and long-term technical and institutional gaps affecting the successful application of an EM/ER strategy
• A discussion of a potential shared future strategy for EM/ER

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How to Comment on the Document

To submit your input, advice or best practices to be included in the document, send an email to: nmfspolicy@noaa.gov. Your comments will be posted below for others to view.

The deadline for submitting comments is September 30th, 2013.

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