 NOAA Fisheries caught up with Rick Bellavance over the summer to ask about his experiences using electronic reporting and electronic monitoring. He’s a charter fisherman out of Point Judith, Rhode Island and a member of the New England Fishery Management Council. This is the first of a two-part interview focusing on electronic reporting.
How did you get started in fishing?
I got my first boat when I was 10 years old, and would run around Narragansett Bay fishing for winter flounder, quahogs, and hardshell clams. When I was 22, I was hired by the fire department, and one of the other firefighters was a charter boat captain. He offered me a crew position on his charter boat, and I ended up working for him for seven seasons, and really learned the business. In 1996, my father and I went in together on the Priority Too and I started working for myself.
Why did you start using electronic reporting to submit your catch reports?
One of my good friends calls me a “closet data geek”—I’ve always been interested in my own data, always kept a logbook. Even as a teenager digging hard shell clams in Narragansett Bay, I meticulously maintained a log of what I caught and when I caught it. So I’ve always had an interest in data. But the real catalyst was when I received a “nastygram” from the Regional Office. It said that if I didn’t complete my vessel trip reports, I wasn’t going to be eligible to reapply for annual permit. So, I sat down in front of my wood stove in December after fishing all year and filled out a hundred vessel trip reports.
After that, I decided I was taking the family out to dinner because I had lost the desire to cook. At the restaurant, I watched the staff tap things on a computer and hand me a bill, and I thought, “I want that for fishing! It would be so much easier.” That’s when I started looking into it. I love it now. We do electronic vessel trip reports all the time, and it really is so much easier.
What do you like most about using electronic reporting software?
It’s easy to use and I can complete my vessel trip report before I even get off the boat. It gives me peace of mind—I don’t have to remember to do them at home and lug that heavy pad around. I don’t have to remember to order more forms in the height of the season when we’re as busy as can be.
Is there anything you don’t like about electronic reporting?
As with any new system, updates to the software are required from time to time and that’s the worst part. Any time a state or federal agency changes something—they might want more data or a particular kind of data—the program needs to be updated. Occasionally there are bugs in the new system that take a little time to work out. That can be frustrating.
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