FY 2023 National Observer Program Annual Report

Overview

Since 2013, NOAA Fisheries has published annual reports describing the activities of the various U.S. regional observer programs, along with related metrics including funding amounts, numbers of observers, fishing days monitored by observers, and fisheries monitored by observers.  To communicate this information more efficiently, NOAA Fisheries is sharing it on this webpage.  For more information about observer program structures, the National Observer Program Advisory Team (NOPAT), and/or uses of observer data, please see the FY 2022 National Observer Program Annual Report.

In fiscal year (FY) 2023 (October 1, 2022–September 30, 2023), 920 observers provided 63,264 sea days of fishery observations. NOAA Fisheries, along with commercial fishing fleets in the Alaska and West Coast regions, invested a total of $72.8 million to provide this coverage in 53 U.S. fisheries. Of this amount, congressionally appropriated funds provided $53.1 million, and fishing industry expenditures related to monitoring totaled $19.7 million.  

Figure 1 shows the number of observers deployed and sea days covered each year from 2013 to 2023, as well as overall observer program funding levels and numbers of fisheries monitored by observer programs from 2013 to 2023.  Table 1 provides a breakdown of funding levels by region for 2023.

Figure 1: National Observer Program Effort and Budget Metrics for 2013 to 2023.

Table 1: FY 2023 Observer Funding Summary (in millions)¹.

¹Appropriated amounts shown include funds allocated to regions from FY 2023-enacted funding.

²West Coast encompasses two separate observer programs administered by the NOAA Fisheries Northwest Fisheries Science Center and West Coast Regional Office.

Headquarters Highlights

The NOPAT has a Safety Advisory Committee (SAC) that comprises safety representatives from each regional observer program, the NOAA Fisheries Office of Law Enforcement, the NOAA Workplace Prevention and Response Office, and the U.S. Coast Guard.  The SAC sponsored a Marine Safety Instructor Training class in April 2023.  In addition, the SAC met in person in May 2023 to discuss numerous topics including recommendations on updates to Observer Safety Training Standards.  

NOAA Fisheries and its observer programs continued to support electronic technologies, including electronic monitoring (EM) and electronic reporting (ER) during FY 2023. NOAA Fisheries supported 7 internal EM projects for a total of $2.1 million in FY 2023, including projects to integrate machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) into EM imagery review and to determine the feasibility of protected species data collection from Hawaii longline EM video using AI automated detection. NOAA Fisheries also supported 7 internal ER projects for a total of $2.0 million in FY 2023, including projects to develop frameworks, policies, and standards for cross-regional ER and efficient application development, as well as support for ER in American Samoa, Guam, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. In addition, NOAA Fisheries, the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, and the Walton Family Foundation also funded 17 grants totaling more than $4 million through the Electronic Monitoring and Reporting Grant Program.

The National Observer Program (NOP) continued to support NOAA Fisheries’ National Seabird Program in FY 2023 through limited financial support to the NSP for observer program-related seabird projects, including Oikonos Ecosystem Knowledge, a non-profit organization that conducts necropsies on seabird carcasses collected by observers.  In June 2023, The Council for the Conservation of Migratory Birds recognized this long-term partnership with Oikonos by awarding NOAA Fisheries with the 2023 Presidential Migratory Bird Stewardship Award.

The Office of Protected Resources (OPR) undertakes a variety of activities to support observer programs and fishery-dependent monitoring efforts. Observer data contributed to a 2023 report entitled Mortality Rate Estimates for Sea Turtles in Mid-Atlantic and Northeast Fishing Gear, 2012-2021. In addition, in January 2023, NOAA Fisheries published the 2023 Annual Determination (AD) final rule to implement sea turtle observer requirements under the Endangered Species Act. Through the AD, NOAA Fisheries identifies U.S. fisheries that will be required to take observers upon NOAA Fisheries’ request. NOAA Fisheries also published in March 2023 the final List of Fisheries (LOF) for 2023, as required by the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA). NOAA Fisheries annually must classify each commercial fishery on the LOF into one of three categories under the MMPA based on the level of mortality and serious injury that occurs incidental to each fishery.

Greater Atlantic Highlights

The Fishery Monitoring and Research Division (FMRD) at NOAA Fisheries’ Northeast Fisheries Science Center (NEFSC) oversees observer programs in the Greater Atlantic Region. The FMRD coordinates three different observer programs:

1. The Northeast Fisheries Observer Program (NEFOP) provided coverage for 3,250 observer days in 2023.
2. The Industry-Funded Scallop Observer Program provided coverage for 1,969 observer days in 2023.
3. The At-Sea Monitoring (ASM) Program for groundfish provides supplemental monitoring for groundfish sector catch accounting; its deployments totaled 7,668 observer days in 2023.

The FMRD also administered 309 sea days of observer coverage focusing on protected species interactions with fisheries. Overall, these observer programs deployed 284 unique observers in 2023.

The final rule to implement Amendment 23 to the Northeast Multispecies Fishery Management Plan became effective in January 2023. The implementing regulations in this rule were designed to improve the accuracy of collected landings and discard data by:

• Replacing the current process for calculating an annual at-sea monitoring (ASM) coverage target with a fixed monitoring coverage target as a percentage of trips, dependent on Federal funding.
• Approving additional EM technologies as an alternative to human at-sea monitors.
• Requiring periodic evaluation of the monitoring program and exclusions from the monitoring requirement.

Within the observer programs, the ASM Program realized an 82% coverage rate in relation to a challenging target of 90% coverage. The NEFOP completed 99% of the total days tasked on the sea day schedule. The NEFOP also renegotiated the NEFOP observer contract to improve  retention and recruitment of observers. In addition, the NEFOP implemented a new observer health and wellness initiative in 2023.

Southeast Highlights

The Southeast Fisheries Observer Program (Observer Program) observed 3,240 sea days in 2023 with 57 observers. The program observed six fisheries in 2023:

1. Gulf and South Atlantic shrimp trawl
2. Highly migratory species (HMS) pelagic longline
3. Gulf reef fish
4. South Atlantic reef fish
5. Southeast gillnet
6. Shark research fishery

The Observer Program experienced several challenges during 2023 including delays with compliance investigations focusing on fishing vessels that did not make themselves available for required observer coverage. To address these delays, the Observer Program began to use landings data and to simplify and standardize the reporting process to more effectively identify out-of-compliance vessels. In addition, during 2023 the shrimp fishery experienced a significant reduction in effort, and as a result the Observer Program’s existing vessel selection efforts yielded fewer observed trips. The Observer Program began to modify its selection processes to better identify shrimp vessels that are still active in order to realize more observed trips for this fishery.

West Coast Highlights

The NOAA Fisheries’ Fisheries Observation Science Program (FOS Program), managed out of the NOAA Fisheries Northwest Fisheries Science Center, is composed of the At-Sea Hake Observer Program (A-SHOP) and the West Coast Groundfish Observer Program (WCGOP). The A-SHOP observes the hake fleets that process catch at sea, while the WCGOP observes a number of fleets that deliver catch shoreside for processing, including sectors that target and incidentally impact groundfish. The WCGOP and A-SHOP deployed 151 observers for a total of 5,570 days in 2023.

The FOS Program devoted a great deal of effort in 2023 to supporting the implementation of EM program regulations for vessels using groundfish bottom trawl and non-whiting midwater trawl gear in the Pacific Coast Groundfish Trawl Catch Share Program. Specifically, the FOS Program worked in 2023 to help refine the EM data system to integrate EM data for in-season catch accounting, and the WCGOP began to prepare to serve as a secondary review entity for EM data.  

The West Coast Regional Observer Program (WCROP), managed out of the NOAA Fisheries West Coast Regional Office, deployed 11 observers for 470 sea days in 2023. Also in 2023, NOAA Fisheries has published final regulations to implement an amendment to the Fishery Management Plan for U.S. West Coast Fisheries for Highly Migratory Species (HMS), which authorized deep-set buoy gear (DSBG) as an additional gear type for catching swordfish and other HMS in federal waters off of California and Oregon. The WCROP continued to provide observers for DSBG vessels in 2023 per NOAA Fisheries regulations.

Alaska Highlights

The North Pacific Observer Program (Observer Program) has two components: full coverage and partial coverage. For the full-coverage component, which covers the majority of Alaska’s groundfish harvest, one or two observers monitor every fishing trip. For the partial-coverage component, the Annual Deployment Plan (ADP) describes the scientific deployment design for observers and the portion of trips that are to be sampled by observers and EM. In December 2022, NOAA Fisheries released the ADP for 2023.

In 2023, the Observer Program deployed 350 observers for a total of 29,232 full coverage sea days and 3,557 partial coverage sea days across 5,141 fishing trips. For more details on the Observer Program’s 2022 activities, see the Observer Program’s 2023 Annual Report. 

Pacific Islands Highlights

The Pacific Islands Regional Observer Program (PIROP) supports observer coverage in three fisheries with the following observer coverage targets:

1. Hawaii pelagic longline shallow-set fishery targeting swordfish (100% coverage target).
2. Hawaii pelagic longline deep-set fishery targeting bigeye and yellowfin tuna (20% coverage target or at least 15% coverage quarterly).
3. American Samoa pelagic longline deep-set fishery targeting albacore tuna (20% coverage recommendation).

In 2023, the PIROP deployed 67 observers for 8,099 sea days. In addition, during 2023, the PIROP, in collaboration with the WCROP, the Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission, and the Pacific Fisheries Information Network, completed the development of Onboard Record Collection Application (ORCA) software and began testing of the software. The PIROP also implemented a mid-cruise debriefing policy for observers, using InReach devices to streamline the reporting of protected species interactions.