Russia and Norway to test electronic reporting system

Russia and Norway are planning to conduct tests to check the readiness of an electronic catch information exchange system, planned to be fully operational in 2021.

Russia’s Center of Fishery Monitoring and Communications (CFMC) – a state-owned company in charge of implementing digital reporting technologies in the Russian seafood sector – said it had reached an agreement with Norway’s fisheries authorities to start joint testing of an electronic reporting system (ERS) in the second quarter of 2020. The new ERS, installed on fishing vessels, sends daily catch data to the governmental body of the country managing the waters that the vessel is fishing in.

Sending the data electronically saves the crew time and effort, and also contributes to better statistics collection, helping the fight against illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) catch, CFMC said in a press release.

Norway and Russia signed a protocol establishing an ERS back in 2012, but the subsequent eight years have yielded no great practical results until recently,  according to CFMC CEO Artyom Vilkin. The system is now ready for tests, Vilkin said, and the parties have successfully exchanged safety certificates.

The results of the tests will be further discussed during a session of the Joint Norwegian-Russian Fisheries Commission, to be held in the fall of 2020 The ERS is scheduled to go fully operational in 2021.

The test is part of broader cooperation between Russia, Norway, Iceland, and the Faroe Islands on the implementation of an ERS to secure better governance of fisheries in the area, which are managed by the North East Atlantic Fisheries Commission (NEAFC).

Russia plans to sign a protocol on the ERS with the Faroe Islands in May 2020, with testing scheduled for summer 2020. Much of the preliminary work – including the establishment of an information exchange channel – has already been done.

A protocol with Iceland is scheduled to be signed during the Global Fishery Forum, to be held in fall 2020 in St. Petersburg, Russia.

The catch information exchanged through the ERS, with both the Faroe Islands and Iceland participating, will start next year, CFMC said.