Periodic Reporting for period 1 - EveryFish (Digital transition of catch monitoring in European fisheries)
Reporting period: 2023-01-01 to 2024-06-30
EVERYFISH is a Horizon Europe Innovation and Action project aiming to develop a suite of technologies to help improve monitoring and sustainability of European fisheries. EVERYFISH has seven objectives:
- Lower the barrier to entry for uptake of AI in the fisheries sector
- Better work conditions and more accurate catch reporting in the fisheries at large
- Standardise catch data for trustworthy and transparent sharing
- Detect anomalous fishing events and unforeseen changes to the marine ecosystem
- Digitize fisheries management to the best interests of both the fishers and the fish
- Identify and address implementation challenges and opportunities
- Test, validate and promote the project results in European fisheries
To reach these objectives we are developing 10 technologies to be used in various parts of the fishing industry, for example tuna fisheries, large-scale pelagic fisheries, and recreational fisheries. EVERYFISH will directly address some of the main challenges that exist in the fishing industry and management sector within a European setting, aiming for the successful implementation of a fully documented fishery. EVERYFISH will contribute to long term sustainable fisheries and a healthy marine environment, and management decisions that have the confidence of all actors involved in those decisions, including the industry actors themselves. By implementing the technological solutions developed in EVERYFISH, as an integrated part of fisheries monitoring, control and surveillance (MCS), today’s approach will be turned upside down and it will become a realistic objective to control all fisheries and landing activities. This will reduce the gap from today’s control management practice to reach the EU’s publicly announced objective of 100 % of landings controlled by 2030. To achieve this, it is important to involve relevant stakeholders, especially fishers, and in EVERYFISH we host workshops to include the views and opinions of the fishers in our work and results.
- Lower the barrier to entry for uptake of AI in the fisheries sector
- Better work conditions and more accurate catch reporting in the fisheries at large
- Standardise catch data for trustworthy and transparent sharing
- Detect anomalous fishing events and unforeseen changes to the marine ecosystem
- Digitize fisheries management to the best interests of both the fishers and the fish
- Identify and address implementation challenges and opportunities
- Test, validate and promote the project results in European fisheries
To reach these objectives we are developing 10 technologies to be used in various parts of the fishing industry, for example tuna fisheries, large-scale pelagic fisheries, and recreational fisheries. EVERYFISH will directly address some of the main challenges that exist in the fishing industry and management sector within a European setting, aiming for the successful implementation of a fully documented fishery. EVERYFISH will contribute to long term sustainable fisheries and a healthy marine environment, and management decisions that have the confidence of all actors involved in those decisions, including the industry actors themselves. By implementing the technological solutions developed in EVERYFISH, as an integrated part of fisheries monitoring, control and surveillance (MCS), today’s approach will be turned upside down and it will become a realistic objective to control all fisheries and landing activities. This will reduce the gap from today’s control management practice to reach the EU’s publicly announced objective of 100 % of landings controlled by 2030. To achieve this, it is important to involve relevant stakeholders, especially fishers, and in EVERYFISH we host workshops to include the views and opinions of the fishers in our work and results.
Work in all tasks and on all technologies have started, at least in the planning phase. The project is on track to reach all milestones and objectives. Previous work have been mapped, data management protocols have been agreed upon to ensure efficient work, and repositories for data storage and use have been created. The CatchScanner has already been installed on five vessels, with 800 GB of data collected for analyses. Challenges such as vessels withdrawing from trials, changes in national legislations leading to extra work, and a partner filing for bankruptcy have been overcome. We have successfully held mulitiple workshops with stakeholders, and observer states in meetings of Regional Fisheries Management Organizations (RFMO) has been granted. Data from the field are being collected from various fisheries.
The EVERYFISH project is still in the early stages, so we have yet to identify results beyond the state of the art. Data collection and technology testing are well underway, and stakeholders from both the fishing industry and management have been involved, so these results are expected to be identified by the end of the project period at the latest.