Improving real time acquisition of sockeye ‘catch per set’ information from commercial purse seine Individual Transferable Quota (ITQ) fisheries

This project would involve three components. First, it would include facilitated engagement of a small group of partners (e.g., harvesters, PSC, DFO, Fraser River Panel members) near the beginning and end of the project. At the beginning the intent of this engagement would be to identify the data flow process, clarify needs of different partners, and decide upon requirements for a technical solution that would be developed through this project. A second phase of work would involve the detailed design, development, and implementation of a technical solution (e.g., technology transfer / training of harvesters, data entry application, database, data output templates) that supports the feasible, accurate, timely, cost-effective, and user friendly data collection and reporting of ‘catch per set’ information from commercial purse seine ITQ fisheries during the 2018 fishing season. A last component would involve undertaking a retrospective evaluation of the real time data flow process and an assessment of the value of information if it had been used in-season. Since this project is a pilot, the final component would occur at the end of the season to avoid disruptions to the 2018 inseason assessment and decision making process (i.e., the intent would be to make data available in season while assessing its timeliness and accuracy, though defer its application in stock assessment models until the end of the season).