Remote electronic monitoring – Why camera technology is a cost-effective and robust solution to improving UK fisheries management
All of the UK’s fishing fleet should be fitted with electronic monitoring technology after Brexit in order to protect fish stocks from poor management and potentially illegal landings of fish, campaigners have urged. Remote monitoring technology, including closed circuit television, is now widely available for fishing vessels, but is often not deployed. A study by WWF, the environmental group, has found numerous examples of fishermen obstructing physical monitoring by independent observers. In extreme cases, this has involved practices including defiling measuring instruments, intimidating inspectors and refusing passage to women. While these are believed to be rare incidents, there is no comprehensive survey of their extent, obscuring the available data on whether fishing vessels are adhering to regulations on catch sizes. One observer told WWF: “[After one particularly bad voyage] I refused to do another trip … It had been a frightening experience [because of poor conditions on the vessel] and on top of this I was threatened with violence ashore by one of the crew because losing the contract was going to cost the vessel and the crew lots of money.”