Ocean Data… Collected in real-time.
Alaska Trollers Association is providing researchers, scientists and industry partners quick access to environment data, sourced directly from their fleet at sea.
Meet Our Partners
The Alaska Trollers Association (ATA) is an industry group that advocates for the sustainability of the fleet and the fishery resources it depends on.
They are committed to safeguarding the interests of fishermen and serving as stewards of the resource. Through policy, advocacy, and discussion leadership, ATA works as the public face of the troll fleet so fishermen can focus on what they do best.
Ocean Data Network (ODN) specializes in backend services for data collected at sea.
ODN packages and aggregates ocean data to support industry and climate driven science. Through collaboration with Deckhand, ODN received skipper-collected data, dissected it accordingly, and passed it onto scientists and other stakeholders who can then use that data to inform their research.
Their Solution Story
Modernizing at-sea environmental data collection to provide researchers with information that can make a difference.
Skippers with the ATA have fished our oceans on a near-constant basis for generations. While they track hoards of migratory chinook, coho, and other salmon species, they’re also witnessing the oceans change in real time. For years, this data was collected and then painstakingly aggregated from scribbles on paper that were recorded from rocking vessel decks with ocean spray smearing the ink.
Enter Deckhand – a versatile, easy-to-use, and rugged hardware/software bundle built on a platform that allows fishermen to enter and record their daily oceanographic observations with ease as they work. Deckhand is a platform that can be tailored to specific research needs to better support and inform fishery management and conservation efforts. Partnering with Ocean Data Network and implementing Deckhand as a data collection solution has provided the Alaska Trollers Association with real-time oceanographic observation to better serve and understand the fishery.
How It Works
Deckhand at its most basic is an electronic logbook platform that adds efficiency to compliance related recordkeeping. At its most complex Deckhand Solutions is able to leverage its highly flexible Catchflow™ parent language and IDE capabilities to customize workflow and dataflow solutions for a variety of circumstances. With ATA and ODN, Deckhand was utilized to collect data points such as water temperature and color, mammal observation notes, stomach content photos and rankings, catch data, and more.
Deckhand Logbook for ATA was designed to connect to ODN’s Amazon S3 bucket as a viable endpoint for electronic data submission. The data points collected by skippers at sea could then be sent automatically to ODN to satisfy immediate, real-time data collection initiative needs.