Tuna company advances electronic monitoring initiative for longline fleet

Tri Marine partners with FlyWire in the second phase of a multi-year project

The world’s largest tuna harvester, Tri Marine, is partnering with data services company FlyWire to install electronic monitoring (EM) cameras onboard its distant-water tuna longline vessels.

The second phase of this multi-year collaboration included vessel owners, staff and crews, as well as port and customs staff from the United States, Taiwan and Trinidad.

“It is amazing to see what’s possible with a different approach to EM. Because our team is focused on fishermen, we are succeeding in driving down costs, increasing value and managing data risk,” said Christa M. Svensson, sustainability program manager-global at Tri Marine.

Tri Marine seeks to establish an EM program that generates scientific contributions and creates a higher value proposition for suppliers and customers. An 80 percent cost reduction of EM hardware has been the result of a two-year collaboration aimed at evaluating FlyWire’s model. The collaborative model provides vessel owners with greater transparency and ownership of the data they collect.

Importantly, Tri Marine also intends to increase the observer coverage rate related to their recently certified Atlantic Albacore Longline Fishery through this industry-led initiative.

“FlyWire is proud to collaborate with the innovative team at Tri Marine working to improve seafood sustainability. To succeed, we believe we must facilitate informed, balanced management strategies while serving the needs of our customers’ fishing businesses. We put these values to work in everything we do.” said Jacob Isaac-Lowry, CEO at FlyWire.

The initiative will continue in phases over the next 12 months.

@GSA_Advocate