The workshop, which was held in Newfoundland, Canada in September 2013, built on the WOC \u2018Smart Ocean\/Smart Industries\u2019 global programme to expand data collection and sharing by ocean industries.<\/p>\n
It provided an insight into the FishSmart Programme, currently under development by the Canadian Centre for Fisheries Innovation (CCFI).<\/p>\n
It also looked at the perspectives of a panel of data users and data providers on the use of fishing vessels as platforms for environmental and atmospheric data collection.<\/p>\n
Around 32 representatives from the fishing industry, national and international data collection organisations, government officials and spatial data experts attended the workshop.<\/p>\n
Participants also took part in a series of breakout sessions designed to create specific and useful input into components of a \u2018Smart Fishing Vessel\u2019 programme such as stakeholder engagement, opportunities and constraints, logical pairings of industry data collectors, decision support tools, and quality assurance of data.<\/p>\n
The WOC, CCFI and other partners say they will continue efforts to promote the use of fishing vessels to collect data, as part of the broader \u2018Smart Ocean\/Smart Industries\u2019 programme.<\/p>\n
Interested companies and other parties are encouraged to contact the WOC to get involved.<\/p>\n