Marine Scotland Science: directory

Helen Holah

Fisheries Assessment and Advice Programme
Fisheries Advice Group
Spatial and Remote Electronic Monitoring fisheries analyst

E-mail: helen.holah@gov.scot

Marine Scotland Science, Marine Laboratory, 375 Victoria Road, Aberdeen, AB11 9DB, UK

Pronouns: she/her/hers

Details of specialism

In general terms my main area of interest is in advancing electronic monitoring (REM) and reporting in Scottish fisheries, with a primary focus on analysis of data outputs for enhanced scientific data collection. I am also interested in integration of electronic technologies data streams into the stock assessment process and wider fisheries and ecosystem management. 

Within the broad topic area my particular focuses currently include:

• promoting electronic monitoring as a tool for scientific data collection and to provide verifiable evidence of what fishers are reporting
• developing national strategies or best practice for achieving scientific objectives of electronic monitoring
• understanding fishers behavioural adaptations and changes in wider fleet dynamics as a result of electronic monitoring verification of compliance with regulations
• collation and analyses of spatial fisheries data (VMS and logbook data) to quantify fishing effort, intensity and impact
• supporting assessment of interactions between fishing and the ecosystem through evaluation of extent, intensity and variability of fishing effort and associated revenue

Main policy links

• catching policy and future fisheries management
• inshore fisheries and coastal communities

External committees and responsibilities

• member of the ICES Working Group on Technology Integration for Fishery-Dependent Data 
• member of the ICES Working Group on Spatial Fisheries Data 
• SMARTFISH H2020 innovation for sustainable fisheries project WP8 deputy
• chair of Marine Scotland Science’s Athena SWAN team

Papers of relevance

French G, Mackiewicz M, Fisher M, Holah H, Kilburn R, Campbell N and Needle CL (2019) Deep neural networks for analysis of fisheries surveillance video and automated monitoring of fish discards. ICES Journal of Marine Science 77, 1340-1353. 

Details of linked research pages

Helen Holah’s ResearchGate profile