Olrac-RTI: A New and Operational Approach to Holistic Management of Fisheries for Multiple Commercial Species and Ecosystem Objectives

The recently proposed Real-Time Incentives (RTI) fisheries management approach (http://icesjms.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2012/02/24/icesjms.fss033.short) integrates mixed-fisheries targets and ecosystem objectives into a single ‘currency’ for management measures. In this approach, fishers would be allocated fishing-impact credits, called RTIs, to spend according to spatiotemporally varying tariffs, replacing the conventional landings quota. RTI-quota and tariffs would be based on commercial stock and ecosystem targets. The fisher could dynamically choose how to spend his RTIs, e.g. by limited fishing in sensitive areas and fishing longer in less sensitive areas. The RTI-tariffs would be gear and vessel-type specific. Olrac SPS has developed and deployed an electronic logbook and vessel tracking and data recording and reporting system (Dynamic Data Logger, DDL) which can be linked to an onshore data management system (Dynamic Data Manager, DDM). Olrac SPS is now developing a customised version of Olrac DDL/DDM to suit the requirements of the RTI approach. The system will provide the on-board software with the up-to-date tariff maps. Once a fishing trip has started, Olrac DDL will record the time the vessel spent in each of predefined RTI management rectangles. This information will be used to automatically calculate the amount of RTIs utilised by the vessel during its fishing trip.