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People already know that a surveillance camera or a spy listening device can help protect businesses and families, but did you know that they can also be used to help the environment? The UK's surveillance technology has earned the country the nickname of "The Nanny State", but their expansive surveillance system has helped some conservationists and environmentalists devise a plan to save aquatic life in the European Union's overfished waters. EU Commissioner Maria Damanaki is lobbying to get boats in EU fishing waters equipped with "smart nets" that are able to filter out unwanted and unnecessary bycatch, and to also be outfitted with regular security cameras to ensure that fisherman are following the strict fishing rules set by the Common Fisheries Policy. Bycatch is a fishing industry term used to refer to fish and other aquatic animals that are unintentionally caught during commercial fishing trips, and there are a lot of species who have been hurt because of their proclivity for being caught in commercial fishing nets. Usually when bycatch is noticed it's too late to release them back into the water, so most aquatic life that accidentally ends up in fishing nets die. For a while most environmentalists were more concerned about sea mammals and endangered species being caught in nets, but now people are starting see that populations of commercially sold fish are severely declining because their young keep getting caught in fishing nets. The proposed smart fishing nets are built with two different sized grids so that large fish can be caught and small fish and crustaceans can easily escape the net. These new boats will come equipped with infra-red and hydraulic sensors to monitor the boat's net winches, but the boat's GPS system is the most impressive part of the ship. Its GPS system will be able to help the boat produce a map of everywhere it has fished in the last two months, along with evidence and records of what kinds of fish the boat has caught. All of this technology is helpful, but the program won't work unless the fishermen themselves cooperate with the new rules. The proposed security cameras and listening devices are designed to not only ensure that the fishermen are following the rules, but to also let the fisherman know how serious the new regulations are. There are already some UK fishermen participating in a trial run of Damanaki's proposed policies that’s being overseen by the Marine Management Organization (MMO), and so far they seem to be working. Fisherman in the trial are encouraged to fish for cod, and to land all of the cod they catch regardless of whether or not they're large enough to sell commercially. When spy-in-the wheelhouse CCTV cameras were installed on smart fishing boats in the UK, cod discards went from 38% to a mere 0.2% The MMO overwhelmingly supports the use of surveillance cameras on fishing boats since it's a less expensive alternative to hiring human observers, and the information they collect can help the organization better plan future fishing regulations. Fisheries in North American waters have been utilizing cameras on fishing boats for years, but the EU's newest combination of surveillance technology and eco-friendly science could be the newest fishing trend to catch on around the world.
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