Reducing Bycatch in New England s Groundfish Sectors: Development of a Fishing Area SelecBvity Tool

Transcription

1 Reducing Bycatch in New England s Groundfish Sectors: Development of a Fishing Area SelecBvity Tool Jonathon Peros & Riley Young Morse Fisheries Bycatch Global Issues and Crea=ve Solu=ons Wakefield Fisheries Symposium May 15, 2014

2 Overview Background of Problem Iden=fica=on of Solu=on The Process The Results Challenges Successes Lessons Learned Next Steps

3 Background: Management ShiG AllocaBon of days to fish AllocaBon of fish Days At Sea

4 Background: Sectors

5 Project AssumpBons Data Poor Limited access to data, fishermen can only see their own informa=on, takes a while to get into system Follow Big Data Paradigm Share catch data regionally aggregated and integrated with data could provide insight into trends and paterns that could help avoid bycatch Goal: sectors fish to full quota

6 Proposed SoluBon Develop industry led bycatch avoidance tool that would map hotspots of choke species Encourage/enable the fleet to share data, and target their full alloca=on

7 Leveraging success stories Others dealing with choke species that can shut down fishery: SeaState Walleye pollock fishery/alaskan salmon bycatch SMAST Georges Bank scallop fishery/yellowtail Flounder

8 Sector fishermen should work together, right? Just had a nice set of haddock on Jeffery s. PlaQ s is loaded with cod! I m straining water on the Northwest corner.

9 Full Harvest of Sector AllocaBons Percentage of ACE Harvested Full U=liza=on Percent of ACE Caught 0 0

10 Reality Bites Perceived Problem: Under low annual catch limits (ACLs), there would be Choke stocks Low alloca=ons of one species would constrain the industry s ability to harvest other species. Challenges to our assump=ons No choke stocks Fluid lease market One person s choke stock is another s target Fishermen are not interested in sharing catch data for target species Fishing loca=ons are private informa=on

11 2012 Groundfish Harvest Percentage of ACE Harvested Full U=liza=on Percent of ACE Caught 0 0

12 ConfidenBality few flats here and there marked a few fish see what comes up in the bag..

13 Course CorrecBon Engage sectors networked project: 400+/- individual businesses Can we find common problem? changes depending on who is in the room What are the emerging issues in the nascent Sector program?

14 FAST Tool, take 1: Anything but cod Can data sharing in RT allow for experimental fishery to access other species in a closed area using selec=ve gear? Cod crisis prevented this from moving forward.

15 FAST Tool, take 2: Harbor Porpoise Bycatch avoidance programs will not work unbl industry is ready to admit that they have a problem. John Gauvin

16 Harbor Porpoise Consequence Closure in the Gulf of Maine

17 Industry was willing to admit they had a problem Industry only seeing aggregate take data aler the fishing season had ended no way to proac=vely address a FLEET WIDE issue. Could we share take informa=on across the fleet during the fishing year, modify fishing behavior in season to minimize takes? Industry led process with goal of reducing takes in sink gillnet fishery. Marine mammal focus legal mandate to report interac=ons (MMPA) Fixed gear fishery in small communi=es No secrets about where and when fishermen fish. Alloca=ons and catch info is not shared

18 SoGware Development Flexible Adaptable Fisherman Login Data Phone Visualiza=on Text VMS Web-based Reporting and Mapping Species of Interest/Hot Spots in Near Real-time for Groundfish Sectors Sector Manager Date: Location (lat/long): Species: #/Lbs: Data Entry Database Layers View by Advisory/Alert Shared: within sector several sectors fishery ocean conditions historical maps observer data (own) day week month study fleet (?)

19 Industry Designed Data Sharing InformaBon entered into FAST portal Portal: Visualiza=on of data (sector) Update of Count (project par=cipants) Alerts E- mail, text message Fisherman and Sector Manager: Lat/Lon with vessel name (visualized in portal) Count of Sector takes Update of total takes Other fishermen in the Sector: Lat/Lon (visualized in portal), Count of Sector Takes, Update of total takes Other Project ParBcipants: Management Area Take Occurred in Update of total takes recorded (point loca=on not shared)

20 FAST: Web- Based Portal

21 Layers: Historic harbor porpoise take data Location and number of sightings plotted on map by gear type

22 Layers: Consequence closure area Filter by month, year, resolution (1, 5, 10 minute square)

23 Layers: Statistical area, closures, Hague Line Toggle layers on and off for stat areas, closures, and more

24 Historical observer data

25 Oceanography: Water Temp

26 Reporting interactions

27 Data Sharing - Alerts

28 Communication Many challenges in repor=ng real or near- real =me informa=on at sea Web- based tool that can be used anywhere there is internet access Repor=ng can even be done on smart phones over 3G network

29 FAST: Enabling an Industry Led Process FAST is a tool that can be used in an industry led process outside of the regulatory process (voluntary) Aligning oceanographic and modeling informa=on with historic and near real- =me data through a web- based portal Informa=on sharing arrangement designed by industry Alert system Industry designed protocols in response to near real- =me informa=on Voluntary response to informa=on

30 Extending Project Focus

31 Fall Trawl Survey vs. Observer

32 Hot Spots

33 Sector data

34 Challenges Sectors were very new lots of concern about new system litle capacity to get engaged problems had not materialized yet When crisis and threat is off the table, interest wanes RT or even near- RT data access is really challenging technologically feasible, hurdles around access b/c of confiden=ality, release of data, etc.

35 Successes Developed robust tool that doesn t really care what species is being monitored Flexible design, easy to extend to respond to new issues in fishery It s GIS mapping plaoorm to distribute data from other sources (NEFMC) that would be of interest/value to users

36 Lessons Learned What is the secret sauce? Trust prove that data stewarded and protected, sharing levels are set and understood by all par=cipants Value show that program is actually helping reduce bycatch and avoid management ac=ons Ease of use lower barrier to par=cipa=on, no redundancy in repor=ng info (VTR integra=on)

37 Next Steps Non- allocated species windowpane Accountability measures for non- marketable species (windowpane) have been triggered gear modifica=ons required, poten=al for =me area closures. Fleet could address this proac=vely during the fishing year, not be subject to =me lags in management. Paying for catches that happened 2 years ago. Heatmap/hot spot for low resolu=on data Integrate evtr data to reduce redundancy and give fishermen/sectors a way to visualize data geospa=ally/ temporally Harness engaged group of sectors who have seen the value through the pilot and want to con=nue to grow program.

38 We know we can communicate in real Bme with each other If the service provided is valuable, easy, reliable, it is indispensible. They will come.

39 Thank you! Northeast Sector Services Network The FAST tool is a web- delivered solware applica=on. It is writen in the Drupal content management system, leveraging an open- sourced technology stack that includes: Opera=ng system: Amazon Linux 64- bit Ubuntu LTS (Lucid Lynx) Server 2 Disk Elas=c Block Storage (32 GB - solware, 200 GB data) Apache PHP PostgreSQL with PostGIS for spa=al data Drupal CMS Omega responsive theme for mobile access Open Layers/ Ext JS JavaScript library for mapping interface GeoServer for integra=on of shape (.shp) and r- based output files Web service integra=on for oceanographic data through Python scrip=ng for data acquisi=on and integra=on PHP- based alert system for no=fica=ons