The capability of electronic monitoring to measure logbook reporting performance and improve data for scientific analyses

Electronic monitoring (EM) systems are used to collect fisheries dependent data to support scientific analyses and management decision-making. In Australian Commonwealth fisheries, EM is also used to validate and improve logbook data reporting at the individual vessel level through the provision of consistent feedback to fishers on their logbook reporting. We compared five years of EM and logbook reported catch numbers for both retained and discarded key tuna and billfish species and, interactions with endangered, threatened and protected (ETP) species in the Australian Eastern Tuna and Billfish Fishery (ETBF). This was undertaken to examine congruence at an individual vessel level and determine how both EM and logbook reporting can potentially be improved in the future. At a fleet-wide level, overall congruence was higher for retained than discarded catch and higher for ETP groups (i.e., seabirds) than at an ETP species (i.e., wandering albatross) taxonomic level. Importantly, vessel-level estimates of congruence revealed significant inter-vessel variation in logbook reporting performance. For example, a small number of vessels were not reporting any bycatch and discards despite EM analysts observing these occurrences on these vessels, whilst other vessels had perfect congruence for some species across all audited sets. These results highlight the capability of EM to identify vessels with general (i.e. universal) or specific (e.g. particular species) logbook reporting deficiencies, that enable managers to undertake either incentive-based, education-based or (where required) compliance-based targeted actions to ensure that those vessels improve their future logbook reporting. Ultimately this approach will improve data inputs for scientific analyses and the fisheries management decisions that rely on them.