Abstract
In recent years, Electronic Monitoring Systems (EMS) have been progressively tested andimplemented in tuna fisheries as a complementary tool in scientific observer programs. All tunaRegional Fisheries Management organizations (t-RFMOs) are now developing minimumstandards that can be used as guidelines to fulfil specific fisheries management measures ineach area of competence including Regional Observer Scheme (ROS) requirements. The firstEM standards for Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (IOTC) were discussed in WGEMS meetingsand were adopted in 2023 based on previous RFMOs and countries experiences. Each tunafishery willing to use EMS including purse seiners in the Indian Ocean is now invited to followthe minimum standards for data collection that were proposed in Resolution 23/08. However,with the diversity of fisheries, vessel configurations, programs advancement and the limits ofthe method itself, EM minimum standards monitoring goals (which are initially based on ROSonboard observation programs) may be challenging to fulfil.The aim of the present document is to review the French purse seine EMS program and todiscuss the feasibility and challenges to comply with the minimum standards for scientific datacollection on tropical purse seine fleets of the Indian Ocean. This document reports on theshared experience of scientists, fleet managers, EM analysts and EM providers with the currentEM installation covering the French and associated tropical tuna purse seine fleet. Here, wereview each ROS scientific field against the ability of the vessel EM configuration to collectthe information. This includes data collection on fishing activity, discards and handling andrelease of ETP species that is currently undertaken routinely and data collection on retainedcatches and FAD activities that is currently in test. Lessons learned from past experience areused to assess data collection possibilities against recently adopted IOTC EMS minimumstandards