Electronic vessel trackers coming for lobster fishers - Martha's Vineyard Times

The Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries (DMF) announced that each commercialized lobster licence holders with a national lobster trap licence volition beryllium required to instal a vas tracking instrumentality opening successful the spring. DMF volition screen the costs of the archetypal 3 years for the 300 eligible vessels that food from Massachusetts ports. 

“We expect to screen the costs of each eligible owner’s purchase, installation, and information program for astir $1,500,” the announcement reads. “Up to 5 antithetic vendors are expected to connection devices for merchantability to the manufacture this winter. Eligible licence holders volition beryllium allowed to take the approved tracking instrumentality that champion fits their business.” 

The announcement states the devices “require precise small powerfulness and maintenance,” operating independently without a reliance connected “any outer electronics oregon mobile telephone to function.” The trackers volition grounds a presumption each minute, allowing managers to “distinguish betwixt sportfishing enactment (hauling oregon mounting traps) and traveling to the sportfishing grounds.” According to the announcement, the devices whitethorn usage cellular information transmission. If the vas is beyond cellular service, the instrumentality volition “continue to grounds the determination information and past upload the information erstwhile the vas returns to cellular service.” 

“Costs from approved systems are intended to beryllium acold little than the outer vas monitoring systems commonly deployed successful offshore national fisheries specified arsenic scallops, groundfish, and surf clams,” the announcement reads. 

The caller request is from a caller interstate program addendum “to amended the accuracy of information depicting wherever and erstwhile lobster harvesters food their traps.” 

“Fine-scale determination information [is] captious arsenic lobster fishers look challenges of being displaced by offshore improvement (wind turbines and aquaculture), and to knowing lobster trap sportfishing successful bid to support close whale aggregations. Also, lobster and Jonah crab banal assessments request much close drawback locations to property landings to each species’ respective banal units,” the announcement reads. The collected information from an idiosyncratic vas volition beryllium kept confidential arsenic DMF maintains confidentiality for the drawback reports from food and shellfish dealers.