Bridging the Gap between Electronic Monitoring Policy and Practice: From the Perspective of Chinese Tuna Longliners

Electronic monitoring systems (EMSs) have been widely used in global fishing vessels as an effective tool to obtain reliable information about catches and fishing operations in order to verify compliance with national and international regulations. Though EMS implementation in tuna vessels has not yet been made a mandatory requirement by tuna regional fisheries management organizations, many Chinese longliners have the system on board for traceability and safety purposes. Based on interviews with managers and skippers on Chinese tuna longliners, this paper firstly identifies the challenges in electronic monitoring management that have hindered fishermen’s confidence to implement EMS at a larger scale. Then this paper proposes a work plan to facilitate EMS implementation from the perspective of Chinese tuna longliners, in which the adoption of EM standards, specifications, and procedures, and identification of EM data fields are the top priorities. To fully address concerns raised by tuna longliners, a cloud computing platform for EMS data storage, transmission, and review could help to protect data safety and confidentiality. Artificial intelligence technology is recommended to increase cost-efficiency in data review procedures, in addition to compliance incentives and financial incentives from policy makers.