Improving data in artisanal IOTC fisheries using electronic monitoring tools

The parlous data situation for artisanal tuna fisheries in the IOTC is due in part to reliance on
technology that is literally thousands of years old - handwriting on paper - to record data. Fisheries
management bodies (business, national and inter-governmental, including in IOTC) are transitioning
to electronic fisheries information systems. However, the IOTC data holdings and management are
reliant on actions taken by Parties to the Commission (CPCs). Primary data recording for logbooks,
monitoring or catch documentation schemes remains overwhelmingly paper-based. Information on
paper must be captured into an electronic system by CPCs before it can be shared or used for
national reporting purposes. This is a cumbersome, expensive and error-strewn process.
Furthermore, paper-based systems are highly scale-dependent, meaning that as the scale of the data
requirements grows (more fishing operations, more volumes and types of information), so too does
the effort to meet those requirements. Few coastal CPCs consistently meet their data submission and
reporting obligations to the IOTC. ABALOBI is a social enterprise working with artisanal fisheries, and
has developed a suite of electronic tools for fishing data recording, including for monitors recording
catch information at landing. Its systems are fully digital, but are designed to work with paper
information sheets if needed, and can be configured to work without an internet connection, making
this the ideal electronic system for the vast numbers of widely dispersed and often remote artisanal
fishing communities that catch tuna in the Indian Ocean. While ABALOBI’s e-logbook and other apps
are also available, we believe that the ABALOBI MONITOR platform, constituted by a smartphone
application feeding a secure, cloud-based data warehouse, together with the suite of analysis,
visualisation and access-management tools, can provide multiple benefits to artisanal fishers,
substantially strengthen governments’ capabilities to detect and address illegal activities and
transform the provision of data from artisanal fisheries to the IOTC - with obvious benefits for a wide
range of activities, most pertinently stock assessment and scientific advice. ABALOBI invites any
interested party to explore a joint program of work, and proposes to collaborate closely with the
IOTC Secretariat to develop heuristics and Standards for electronic systems in artisanal fisheries.