Data Review & Database Management

EM presents an enormous opportunity to expand and improve the collection of data about our marine resources. Yet collecting data is only the first step. Data review and management are key to making the information useful, and typically represent major, ongoing costs for an EM program. At Saltwater we are committed to finding efficiencies in all of these areas to get the highest quality data for the dollars spent.

Data Collection

Reaching a future where data from EM is fully integrated with other sources of fishery-dependent data requires careful thought about what data is being collected, how it is best collected, and the trade-offs between timeliness and cost. Our team of EM data managers and reviewers have been trained as observers by NOAA- Fisheries in sampling and fish identification and have all worked onboard fishing vessels. This hands-on experience underpins our approach to EM data collection and review. Refining catch handling to capture better data, building computer vision tools to speed video review, providing data about high bycatch locations, or developing technology to assist observers in plants are all grounded by our team’s experience “on deck.”

EM Data Review Services

Our review team has examined thousands of hours of EM data for a range of fisheries, capturing data for catch accounting, compliance monitoring, and protected species interactions. In addition to review and reporting, our services include reviewer training, data analysis and audit services. At Saltwater, we believe that open source review software benefits our clients by avoiding the limitations and expense associated with proprietary software. Saltwater collaborated with Chordata LLC and Sea State Inc. to develop O2Review, an open source platform for review of EM data.

O2Review was developed with input from fishery managers representing a range of fisheries and support from the U.S National Fish and Wildlife Foundation. It is designed to be adaptable to different fisheries, different management objectives, and to process data from different EM systems. It is currently used by a range of clients, including NOAA-Fisheries, Mote Marine Labs, The Nature Conservancy, the Ocean Foundation, and Conservación ConCiencia (Puerto Rico), Sernapesca (Chile), and industry clients in Alaska, New Zealand, and South Korea. Our development team is available to customize the software to meet specific program requirements and provide on-going support to users.