46 



At present, the research and development 

 program is directed toward bringing new en- 

 forcement technology into use in 10 years or 

 more. It could be possible, however, to ac- 

 celerate the applied development of new tech- 

 nology for which most of the research has 

 already been completed by others so that it 

 could meet some Coast Guard needs in about 

 5 years. 



Because the budget for fisheries enforce- 

 ment is only a small part of the overall Coast 

 Guard budget (about $50 million out of $1.2 

 billion), the agency has determined that 

 research funds in support of such enforcement 

 can best be spent for technology transfer and 

 for additions to related research contracts in 

 other agencies. 40 



The Coast Guard is also following develop- 

 ments in the Department of Defense where 

 much of the work on technology which may 

 be applicable to long-term fisheries enforce- 

 ment is classified. 



If conservation and management of the 200- 

 mile fisheries zone is judged to have value to 

 the United States beyond the present mone- 

 tary value of fisheries-related products and 

 employment, support for increased research 

 at the Coast Guard level may be warranted. 

 Further research should include determina- 

 tion of the best methods of utilizing classified 

 systems for other than defense purposes. 



It appears that a pilot project for coopera- 

 tion and joint research could bring together 

 the Coast Guard, DOD, and NASA to develop 

 new systems and find efficient ways of using 

 technology in a multimission context. Such a 

 pilot project could include joint preparation of 

 long-range plans for determining the most ap- 

 propriate research and development strategy 

 for new technologies, identifying the needs of 

 all potential users of such technology, and 

 analyzing the costs and benefits of developing 

 and utilizing new technology, especially 

 remote-sensing devices. 



Remote-Sensing Devices 



Since it appears that remote sensing will be 

 an important enforcement tool as fisheries 

 management develops, OTA commissioned a 

 study of the technology of such systems. The 

 following is a brief summary of the OTA 

 study of remote-sensing devices and findings 

 relative to the remote-sensing techniques 

 which were analyzed for potential usefulness 

 in fisheries enforcement. Figure 12 compares 

 the various techniques for usefulness and cost. 



Of the seven devices studied, microwave 

 radar appears to have the best potential for 

 use in fisheries enforcement. High-frequency, 

 over-the-horizon radar was also judged to 

 have good potential, but is not as highly 

 developed for commercial application as 

 microwave radar. Other remote-sensing 

 systems in this group appear to have only 

 limited fisheries application at this time. 



Because of the sensitive nature of much of 

 the remote-sensing technology, OTA has also 

 prepared a separate classified document on 

 these systems. 



By definition, remote sensing includes any 

 method of obtaining information about an ob- 

 ject from a distance without any physical con- 

 nection to the object. It must be remembered 

 that remote sensing is a detection and iden- 

 tification tool only; it is not useful in ap- 

 prehension. 



For purposes of this study, research person- 

 nel with broad knowledge and experience in 

 remote sensing have analyzed potential tech- 

 niques for use in fishery enforcement and 

 have determined that some of these tech- 

 niques can be applied to fishery enforcement 

 without resorting to the kind of high-priority, 

 high-cost research and development used in 

 defense and space exploration programs. 



