Arlington, Virginia, U.S.A.-based environmental advocacy agencies The Nature Conservancy and Conservation International have issued a joint report that electronic monitoring and Wi-Fi technologies improve crew welfare at sea.
The study sought to assess whether electronic monitoring could also improve transparency with regard to worker welfare, when paired with Wi-Fi access for vessel crews.
The report was the result of a year of research and a six-month pilot project that followed tuna longline vessels in the Western and Central Pacific Ocean. The researchers installed both electronic monitoring and Wi-Fi capability on three vessels with the goal of gathering concrete data about the effects of the technology.
Nature Conservancy Ocean Science and Technology Manager Meghan Fletcher said that the results “reveal that the widely recognized benefits of electronic monitoring technologies extend far beyond marine conservation and can significantly improve crew welfare at sea.”
The project also studied how the capabilities of electronic monitoring might be leveraged to help protect crew members from human rights violations at sea, finding that proper electronic monitoring could alert authorities to accidents, injuries, the presence of personal protective equipment, estimated work and rest hours, and trip lengths.
“We now know that implementing this technology on industrial fishing vessels can both strengthen fisheries management and support verification of important social safeguards,” Fletcher said.
The research also identified, however, that electronic monitoring posed a risk of harmful surveillance and, thus, required careful consideration. Additionally, the financial costs of electronic monitoring make the tool hard to scale, the researchers said. Such scalability would only come, they said, after strong industry commitments had been put in place to protect labor conditions.
As for Wi-Fi aboard vessels, Conservation International Ocean Technology and Innovation Program Manager Sunny Tellwright said that the research showed that "Wi-Fi for crews at sea is a critical unlock, enabling crews to speak with family and friends, access grievance mechanisms, and check payments.
"This connectivity transforms isolation into connection, providing a vital link to the outside world that can help reduce some of the labor risks the distant-water fishing industry faces," Tellwright said. “These insights can help inform guidelines and requirements for Wi-Fi access at sea, ensuring that crews are supported, connected, and safer."
The Nature Conservancy, Conservation International, and Portland, Oregon, U.S.A.-based Ocean Outcomes will now embark on the next phase of the project, which will focus on developing electronic monitoring data sharing agreements that include labor protections and Wi-Fi access agreements with industry stakeholders. Other future elements of the project include expanding research into innovations to electronic monitoring technology like artificial intelligence or machine learning advancements.
The organization will also run a second pilot project that will install electronic monitoring and Wi-Fi on 10 vessels to collect a larger data set.
Finally, the organizations will work to derisk electronic monitoring and Wi-Fi solutions so that businesses understand the commercial pathways by which they can adopt the technologies.
