Scallop fishing - remote electronic monitoring: guidance

4. Data

The master, owner or charterer (if any) of a relevant scallop boat is responsible for ensuring the data requirements, as set out in the legislation and technical specifications, are met. There are various offences associated with failure to comply with the data requirements – these are set out in the Offences and Penalties section of this guidance.

You should work with the supplier of your REM system to ensure that you understand how the data is to be transferred and stored, and to ensure that the system you use is compliant with the requirements.

4.1 Winch and VPS data

Location data and data gathered from winch sensors that are able to detect when the boat’s winches are in operation are required to be automatically uploaded to the REM providers data storage system when the boat is within range of, has access to, or is connected to any means of transmission.

Data must be kept for 1 year and during that period be available to Scottish Ministers.

The data transfer must take place in a secure manner, to ensure that the recorded data cannot be altered in any way after the data are recorded.

4.2 Camera data

Camera data can be large in volume, which means that data transmission and storage considerations have been taken into account as part of the operational requirements. Masters, owners and charterers (if any) can choose their preferred method of data transmission depending on their business requirements.

Option 1: Camera data must be retained on the onboard REM device and the REM system is configured so that it submits specific camera data automatically on receipt of a request by Scottish Ministers. All camera data stored on the REM control box is required to be held and made available to Scottish Ministers for a period of one year, unless authorised for early deletion by the Scottish Ministers.

Option 2: As with the winch and VPS data, all camera data must be stored on the control / storage box of the REM system and transmitted automatically to a data storage system owned, operated or hosted by or on behalf of the manufacturer of your REM system when the boat is within range of, has access to, or is connected to any means of transmission. Once transmitted, you should ensure that the data is stored for one year from the date of capture or the date automatic transmission was completed, whichever is the latest, and is accessible to the Scottish Ministers. Data must be stored during this period unless instructed by the Scottish Government that it may be deleted.

The data transfer must take place in a secure manner, to ensure that the recorded data cannot be altered in any way after the data are recorded.

4.3 Costs and Access requirements

All costs relating to the transmission and storing of data must be met by the boat owner or charterer (if any). Officials operating on behalf of the Scottish Ministers must be able to, at any time, and without cost, access the recorded data, extract the recorded data and review the recorded data using your REM providers software so that the data can be analysed appropriately.

Scottish Government officials reserve the right to download data to their own corporate systems for further analysis. Such data is held in accordance with the published privacy notice.

4.4 Exemption notices

In exceptional circumstances the Scottish Government may authorise an exemption to these data transmission and retention requirements at any time, if they are satisfied that there is reasonable cause to do so. This will be in the form of a written notice.

Conditions may be specified as part of this written notice and an offence may be committed if these are not met.