Fishery observers work in US waters. Observers collect data on the Georges Bank scallop and lobster fisheries, as well as the California drift gillnet fishery targeting swordfish and thresher shark.
Observers monitor the vast Alaska and Seattle based fisheries in the North Pacific and Bering Sea.
The size of vessel range from factory motherships a few hundred feet long, to 40ft bottomfish vessels. The length of a fishing trip varies with the fishery and the vessels involved. Some fisheries have trips that typically last a day such as Mid-Atlantic gillnet and Monterey Bay set net fisheries. Pelagic longliners targeting swordfish and tunas may stay out five or six weeks to fill their holds. Observer measuring a bluefin tuna taken aboard a longline vessel.