The Challenge
The fishing industry is of great importance to the American economy, which means that the authorities have an interest in monitoring and protecting the fisheries. Fish is a natural resource, and ineffective management can lead to its depletion. With hundreds of thousands of kilometres of territorial waters and coasts, protecting the fisheries is a big job.
Through twoday’s solution vTrack, our customer NOAA: National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration, can make sure fishing quotas are kept. The solution contributes to a healthy and sustainable fishing industry, and to the protection of endangered animal species along the American coast.
The Solution
The solution itself is a vessel monitoring system. It has made it possible for NOAA to monitor all fishing vessels by locating the position of the vessels in American waters. Thus, preventing illegal fishing. At present, 6,000 vessels are registered and are reporting positions daily. Vessel position information is possible by GPS and satellite technology.
Once an hour or more, a GPS position is automatically sent from all vessels to the vessel monitoring system vTrack. NOAA’s employees can then look at the position of all vessels, both from the office from shore and onboard patrol vessels. The system has been developed as an application with the user in mind and it is intuitive, fast and can be used on land and at sea. In the system, the user is only to fill in the below information:
What
Which fishing vessels are you
interested in obtaining
information about
When
In which areas
and at what time
(date)
How
How do you wish the information
displayed - on a map or in other
form of data
In addition to registering vessels’ current positions, NOAA is also able to obtain information regarding the vessels’ speed, history etc. through the system.
“We have had a successful collaboration with twoday since its inception. twoday has provided support and helped in all necessary ways. The vessel monitoring system vTrack is the primary system that our employees use to manage the fishery. All relevant fishing areas are configured in the system, and the system is adapted to the special needs of the individual divisions"
Kelly Spalding-Behner, J.D.
VMS Program Manager & Investigative Support Program Manager
NOAA Fisheries | U.S. Department of Commerce
The Value
For many years, twoday has been NOAA’s supplier of IT solutions. A collaboration that has been running since 2009, and evolved over time. In addition to delivering the fishing monitoring system vTrack, twoday has also been responsible for developing several integrations over the years.
Even if NOAA and twoday are located on different continents, they are still able to have a close collaboration. They hold monthly meetings, and twoday is responsible for annually training NOAA’s employees in the system.
Fishing contributes to feeding the world´s growing population, creating jobs and boosting the economy. However, It must be done in a sustainable manner, because healthy fish stocks lead to healthy oceans. If we are to secure fishing as a continuing industry, fishing must be monitored. This important job is supported by twoday’s solution.
As of today, the following countries and organizations are using vTrack: Denmark, European Fisheries Control Agency (EU Commision), Estonia, Faroe Islands, Greenland, Netherlands, Lithuania, Myanmar, NAFO, Poland, Slovenia, Somalia, the U.S. and Germany.