Electronic Logbooks for the Commercial Fishing Industry: Is It Really Working and What Can be Learnt from International Experiences?

Two fundamental obstacles facing resource management within the fishing industry are the lack, or poor quality, of available data on fishing operations, and the mechanisms through which such data is recorded and transmitted. Current paper-logbooks are inconsistent, often illegible, and cause significant delays in delivery. Fishing operations are dynamic by nature, and fish are an ever-moving resource. By the time data reaches the decision-makers on land, has been “cleaned up”, verified and manually typed up (often weeks/months later), they become less relevant to the operation happening at sea.  

In light of this, Olrac a South African company, set about developing an electronic data logging software solution specifically designed for the data-collection, management and reporting needs of commercial fishing data.  The resultant software, Olfish, is capable of collecting, analyzing, plotting, mapping, reporting, tracing and transmitting all data related to fishing operations and totally eliminates the need for paper-logbooks.   The Olfish components include an onboard version and a shore component, as well as a web-based data management hub.  The methodology adopted by OLRAC in its eLog development process was to address several issues inherent in both the fishing industry and regulatory requirements. These included:

         i.            The fact that the software had to conform to national statutory regulations, whilst at the same time being able to meet distinct regional requirements.

       ii.            Making the software flexible enough to adopt altered regulations in the light of experience gained during the implementation phases.

      iii.            Overcoming resistance from the fisher community. In other words, bringing commercial value to users and not just regulatory functionality.

     iv.            Overcoming the fact that many fishers lack computer experience.

       v.            Addressing the need for security and confidentiality of data on both sides of the eLog solution (client and server) and during transmission.

     vi.            Educating and encouraging fishers to use eLog technology.

Since its initial development Olfish has undergone many changes and upgrades and rigorous testing worldwide and is currently operating on hundreds of vessels in Europe, Australia, New Zealand, the USA, Canada and Africa. Olfish complies with the Australian Fishery Management Agency's (AFMA) reporting requirements and with the latest EU Electronic Reporting System's regulations.    

This paper uses many case studies to describe the author’s experiences with the implementation of the eLog technology developed by OLRAC in the international arena.  The author will give various usage examples as well as lessons learnt from several fisheries and observer programs around the world.