Tag Archives: electronic surveillance

At Sea, Under the Eyes of Cameras

Chris Brown has grown used to the five video cameras that record every move he and his two crew members make aboard the Proud Mary. Since installing the equipment in January on the 45-foot otter trawler, whenever Brown steams out of Galilee in search of flounder and other groundfish in the Atlantic Ocean waters off Rhode Island, the electronic monitoring system kicks on. Brown is one of three Rhode Island fishermen who have signed on to a program that is testing out electronic surveillance as an alternative to human monitors that the federal government requires to be on board one in every seven fishing trips in the Northeast in an effort to stamp out overfishing. The new program being led by The Nature Conservancy offers the potential for closer observation of commercial fishing, enhancing compliance with quotas and deterring misreporting. But not everyone has embraced electronic monitoring. Click here to read the story 10:51