Absolute awarded Electronic Logbook contract by NOAA

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has awarded a contract to Absolute to provide electronic logbooks and catch reporting systems for the United States fishing fleet operating in the South Pacific.

Today over 2,000 vessels use Absolute's electronic forms technology to report their catch activities to fisheries authorities - in real-time via a Vessel Monitoring System (VMS) terminal fitted on-board each vessel.

This contract builds prior on prior projects completed by Absolute under the days-at-sea program within the North East and South East fisheries region within the United States.

The addition of this new program within the Pacific will further assist United States fishing vessel operators in meeting their obligations to file timely notices including arrival/departure reports, catch reporting, trans-shippment and entry to restricted fishing areas. It also marks a major upgrade to Absolute's e-forms software that provides the on-board catch reporting system.

Absolute's electronic logbook solutions are designed to be as user friendly as possible and operate in conjunction with a number of leading Vessel Monitoring Systems (VMS) terminals. Both the Inmarsat and Iridium satellite networks may be used for the transmission of electronic logbook data. Fisheries regulations change frequently, so the system is designed to remotely receive updated electronic forms over-the-air, avoiding the need to visit the vessel to manually install updates.

The Absolute solution includes unique features to reduce the administrative burden to the fishing industry. By combining a detailed catch log with a rules-based system the software can automatically determine which reports should should be sent to 16 individual countries. In addition there are general reports sent to the Regional Fisheries Management Organizations, along with detailed logbooks which are transmitted to NOAA.

In the past these same reporting requirements were handled manually with paper based logbooks and e-mailed notifications - a process that was time consuming and prone to error. The Absolute electronic logbooks represent a much improved system that can reduce the paperwork burden to industry, whilst improving regulatory compliance by streamlining the submission of catch data to the regulatory authorities.