Large pelagic fishing vessels in English waters will have to carry cameras, sensors and GPS from November 2028, Defra said on Monday.
The start date is subject to parliamentary timings. The rule covers pelagic trawlers, large boats built to catch shoaling fish such as mackerel or herring from open water, using nets and on-board storage to handle big catches.
Remote Electronic Monitoring (REM) gives an ongoing picture of fishing activity at sea. That includes where vessels are fishing, what they are catching, and whether marine mammals, seabirds or sharks are being accidentally caught.
Fisheries Minister Stephen Morgan said the move was “a major step forward for protecting our seas”, and that the fact most of the fleet is already on board “speaks volumes”.
Many of these boats already have REM systems installed. Defra said the requirement brings the rest of the large pelagic trawl fleet in line, “ensuring a level playing field for vessels doing the right thing”.
Defra said evidence from REM will help scientists build a more accurate picture of fish stocks. It will also make it easier for regulators to spot, and act proportionately on, fishing practices that are harmful or do not follow the rules.
The requirement follows a trial in which Defra worked with a volunteer pelagic trawl vessel to test how REM works in practice. Defra said the lessons from that project shaped the policy.
That vessel was the Frank Bonefaas, a 118 metre freezer trawler operated by North Atlantic Fishing Company (NAFC), which catches, freezes and packages fish on board.
REM equipment was installed on it in 2024, and the early adopter phase ran for nearly 18 months of data collection before ending.
The phase grew out of Defra’s response in May 2024 to its consultation on wider use of REM in English waters. That response set a stepwise approach, starting with volunteer vessels, so that officials could learn how the fishery operates and how to monitor it.
Footage from the vessel was reviewed against agreed objectives: verifying catch documentation, verifying full retention, identifying and estimating unwanted catches, and quantifying interactions with sensitive species.
Cefas and the Marine Management Organisation also joined a fishing trip in June 2025 to put the footage in context.
Phil Haslam, managing director of NAFC, said the trial had helped the company prepare for REM installation for its operations in Scottish waters. He added that it had shown that “fitting cameras is the easy bit”, and that the focus now needs to be on collating and analysing the data and getting value from it.
Thomas Catchpole, head of applied fisheries research at Cefas, said REM offers the chance to “transform the way we collect essential scientific data” for fisheries management in English waters.
Elinor Brett, Defra’s REM policy lead, said the project had flagged “important questions and considerations for the next phase of the REM programme” and helped build capability to analyse and use REM data.
Officials have also discussed similar plans with the Scottish Government and the European Union, as other nations develop measures for comparable fisheries in parallel.
Data analysis from the trial will continue for a while, and Defra said it will now look at how to apply the learning in the next phase of the programme.