The Final 2026 Annual Deployment Plan (ADP) for Observers and Electronic Monitoring (EM) in the Groundfish and Halibut Fisheries off Alaska has been posted to the NOAA Fisheries website. The North Pacific Observer Program monitors vessels in both partial coverage and full coverage. All full coverage trips are monitored by one or two observers. The ADP specifies the scientific deployment design and selection rate for the partial coverage component, which includes trips monitored by observers and EM. In 2026, fishing trips will be divided into groups defined by: (a) monitoring requirement (full or partial coverage), (b) monitoring type (observers or EM), (c) Fisheries Management Plan area being fished (BSAI or GOA), and (c) gear type (Fixed or Trawl). The Proximity allocation method will be used to deploy observers and fixed-gear EM in the partial coverage component.

The 2026 budget for EM and observer deployment in the partial coverage fisheries is $4.75M. The fixed-gear EM group includes 181 vessels. The trawl EM group consists of all pollock catcher vessels carrying EM and using pelagic trawl gear in the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands and Gulf of Alaska. In 2026, 114 vessels are expected to participate in this group, including 44 which are expected to participate in the Gulf of Alaska partial coverage fishery. Overall, NMFS will implement 10 sampling strata in 2026 and expects to monitor 4,341 trips and 22,110 days, consisting of an estimated 2,868 trips and 17,461 days in the full coverage component of the program, and 1,473 trips and 4,649 days in the partial coverage component.

The 2026 rates can be found in the table below.

* For Trawl EM in the GOA: all vessels 100% at-sea coverage with EM; plus 100% shoreside monitoring for salmon and halibut PSC; plus 33% shoreside sampling for groundfish biological samples.

If you have questions, please reach out to Dr. Jason Jannot ( [email protected] ).