Today, NOAA Fisheries is announcing that we have set a preliminary human at-sea monitoring coverage target of 90 percent of all sector groundfish trips for the 2023 fishing year (May 1, 2023, through April 30, 2024). The preliminary coverage target is being announced now to facilitate preparations by industry members and monitoring companies ahead of the start of the 2023 fishing year. NOAA Fisheries has prepared a spending plan for funds appropriated by Congress. The final ASM coverage target will be announced when the spending plan is complete. We expect the final coverage target is likely to remain 90 percent, but, if revised, we expect the target to be between 80 percent and 100 percent.
We will separately announce the video review rates for electronic monitoring video footage.
The 90-percent at-sea monitoring coverage target, in conjunction with electronic monitoring, will continue to help address bias and reliably estimate overall catch by sector vessels. We set the at-sea monitoring coverage target based on funds appropriated by Congress for groundfish at-sea monitoring.
We will continue to reimburse 100 percent of sector at-sea monitoring costs, including electronic monitoring. The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission will continue to administer the reimbursement program for fishing year 2023.
