NOAA Fisheries has awarded FLOAT Partners a five-year, USD 50 million (EUR 46 million) contract to oversee efforts to put observers on commercial fishing vessels in the Pacific Islands.
Under the contract, which is set to begin 1 September and continue into 2028, Hawai’i, U.S.A.-based FLOAT will recruit, supervise, and outfit fisheries observers as part of the Pacific Islands Region Observer Program (PIROP).
The program puts observers on all Hawaiʻi shallow-set longline swordfish vessels. It also places them on 20 percent of Hawaiʻi and American Samoa deep-set longline tuna vessels where they collect catch and bycatch data and record interactions with marine mammals and protected species.
FLOAT replaces Lynker Technologies, a Virgina, U.S.A.-based government contractor that received a USD 34 million (EUR 31 million) PIROP contract in 2018, as the PIROP overseeing body…