Harmonizing Tuna RFMO Electronic Monitoring Standards

This paper is part of a series that summarizes discussions from the 2022 Global Electronic Monitoring Symposium,¹ which convened more than 50 EM experts, both in person and virtually, for a three-day workshop. The symposium focused both on the use of electronic monitoring programs to increase oversight and transparency in international fisheries management and on existing barriers to the uptake of EM. Although this series of papers does not represent an exhaustive discussion of the issues, it includes the key points that symposium participants raised.

As of 2022, four tuna regional fisheries management organizations (TRFMOs) and their 92 member countries have begun drafting electronic monitoring (EM) standards via working groups and workshops. EM standards aim to provide guidelines for consistent implementation of EM at the national and subregional levels to ensure effective monitoring and data collection that supports evidence-based fisheries management. Given the global nature of much of the world’s tuna fleet it’s important for RFMOs to align EM standards and share information as these standards are developed. The Global Electronic Monitoring Symposium (GEMS) provided an initial platform for an exchange of ideas relevant to the four main TRFMOs; the organizations should work to continue efforts to coordinate developing EM standards. Collaboration among the chairs of the TRFMO EM working groups would help harmonize minimum EM standards and enable vessels to fish in a variety of areas with just one EM system.

Endnote

1. GEMS Steering Committee members – Andrew Clayton, Claire van der Geest, Esther Wozniak, Eugene Pangelinan, Gerald Leape, Mark Zimring, Papa Kebe, Robert Gillett, Ruth Hoban

The Pew Charitable Trusts provided funding for this project, but Pew is not responsible for errors in this paper and does not necessarily endorse its findings or conclusions.