Presentation Information
[8uJbD0lg-05]The Moment of Catch: Linking Resource Extraction to the Digital
*Eva-Kristin Varheim1 (1. Transparency in the Moment of Catch (Norway))
The sustainable management of living marine resources depends on knowing not only the state of a fish stock, but also what is actually removed from it. Resource extraction is a physical event: when fish are harvested, the stock and its relationship with the surrounding marine ecosystem are affected at that moment. Yet the registration and documentation of this extraction are generally separate processes, occurring after or alongside the harvesting operation.
This paper explores a principle-based proposition: could resource extraction and validated resource registration become the same event? If reliable information about species, size, quantity and actual extraction could be generated at the moment of catch, such data could strengthen catch documentation, traceability and quota accounting; contribute higher-resolution information on removals to the scientific basis for stock assessment and ecosystem understanding; and, where available in real time, support operational harvesting decisions within predefined biological and management criteria. This proposition is particularly relevant in the context of Digital Twins of the Ocean. Digital representations of exploited marine ecosystems depend on reliable observations of the physical world. A closer connection between observation, selection, extraction and registration could create a new data interface between the physical act of harvesting and its digital representation, supporting a continuous cycle of observe - identify - select - extract - register - update - assess - adapt.
The paper introduces TIMOC - Transparency in the Moment of Catch as a conceptual contribution to how such an approach might be realised in practice. TIMOC explores whether emerging autonomous underwater technologies could enable a different approach to pelagic harvesting, in which fish are first located and gathered as a school and subsequently guided into a controlled flow through a harvesting and selection system. Rather than capturing an entire aggregation first and determining its composition afterwards, the concept seeks to move identification and selection into the harvesting process itself.
Within the proposed architecture, cooperating autonomous underwater systems would interact with and manage the school before fish are directed through an underwater selection system. As fish pass through this controlled flow, species, size and other relevant characteristics could be identified, allowing fish or fractions of the school to be retained or released before final extraction. The approach thereby explores whether selective harvesting, resource observation and documentation can become integrated parts of the same physical process.
TIMOC is presented neither as an existing technological solution nor as a Digital Twin of the Ocean, but as a possible physical interface between living marine resources, future selective harvesting systems and the data environments required for digital ocean representations.
The paper invites interdisciplinary discussion on a broader question: Can future harvesting systems help close the gap between observing, selecting, extracting and digitally representing living marine resources - and thereby enable more transparent, selective and knowledge-based fisheries management?
This paper explores a principle-based proposition: could resource extraction and validated resource registration become the same event? If reliable information about species, size, quantity and actual extraction could be generated at the moment of catch, such data could strengthen catch documentation, traceability and quota accounting; contribute higher-resolution information on removals to the scientific basis for stock assessment and ecosystem understanding; and, where available in real time, support operational harvesting decisions within predefined biological and management criteria. This proposition is particularly relevant in the context of Digital Twins of the Ocean. Digital representations of exploited marine ecosystems depend on reliable observations of the physical world. A closer connection between observation, selection, extraction and registration could create a new data interface between the physical act of harvesting and its digital representation, supporting a continuous cycle of observe - identify - select - extract - register - update - assess - adapt.
The paper introduces TIMOC - Transparency in the Moment of Catch as a conceptual contribution to how such an approach might be realised in practice. TIMOC explores whether emerging autonomous underwater technologies could enable a different approach to pelagic harvesting, in which fish are first located and gathered as a school and subsequently guided into a controlled flow through a harvesting and selection system. Rather than capturing an entire aggregation first and determining its composition afterwards, the concept seeks to move identification and selection into the harvesting process itself.
Within the proposed architecture, cooperating autonomous underwater systems would interact with and manage the school before fish are directed through an underwater selection system. As fish pass through this controlled flow, species, size and other relevant characteristics could be identified, allowing fish or fractions of the school to be retained or released before final extraction. The approach thereby explores whether selective harvesting, resource observation and documentation can become integrated parts of the same physical process.
TIMOC is presented neither as an existing technological solution nor as a Digital Twin of the Ocean, but as a possible physical interface between living marine resources, future selective harvesting systems and the data environments required for digital ocean representations.
The paper invites interdisciplinary discussion on a broader question: Can future harvesting systems help close the gap between observing, selecting, extracting and digitally representing living marine resources - and thereby enable more transparent, selective and knowledge-based fisheries management?
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