PETROLEUM TECHNOLOGY SUPPORTS FISHERIES MANAGEMENT.

Abstract

No adequate technology has to our knowledge so far been developed for reliable online monitoring of harvested fish quantities. We demonstrate in this study that multiphase measurement technology successfully applied in the petroleum industry for measurements of pipeline flow of oil and gases (Nilsson, 1989; Stalheim, 1991; Halvorsen, 1992) also can be used for objective recording of withdrawals from the sea (Spilde, 2001). Our results show that the multiphase flow method represents a quantum leap with respect to quantitative measurement accuracy, reliability, and objectivity in fish catches measurement and reporting, compared to the conventional practice of manual level measurement (Røttingen et al., 2002) within the on-board fish tanks. We conclude that modern resource management by adopting this technology can be taken to a new level through objective, online monitoring, substantially reducing uncertainties and unknown factors.