Trident Systems

Video observation
Observational data collected on fishing vessels is routinely used by fisheries researchers and managers to supplement data provided by fishers. On larger vessels, such as the New Zealand deepwater fleet, observations are typically collected by fisheries observers carried as supernumeraries on a proportion of fishing trips.

Observer coverage has been more challenging to implement in inshore fisheries. Smaller vessels struggle to accommodate fisheries observers and the fact that these vessels undertake shorter, weather-dependent trips makes use of human observers less efficient.

Fishers in several inshore fisheries recognised that observational data is required, especially when assessing fisheries interactions with protected species, and have been keen to pursue video observation as a more efficient means of collecting observational data. As a result, Trident Systems has worked with Snap Information Technologies to adapt their innovative camera technology for use in fisheries monitoring programmes.

Key innovations have been:

use of full hemisphere cameras that allow retrospective pan and zoom in recorded footage, and so reduce the number of cameras required in some monitoring applications
automated footage retrieval to retrieve footage from vessels autonomously
hardware optimised for round the clock recording on small vessels