Alaskan and federal agencies monitor commercial fish catches. They do this by stationing biologists with specific backgrounds on the boats to sample catches. The agencies don't hire these observers themselves, they hire companies to do that for them and there are 5 currently in place. Observers are hired by a company and are trained and monitored by the agencies.
Training is 3 weeks, in Seattle, after which observers are shipped/flown to an Alaskan port (Dutch Harbor) where they board a fishing vessel. Depending on the size of the vessel, there will be 1 to 2 observers, and rarely, 3.
The goals of observers and fishing vessels are different and observers are thus federally protected from being pestered, and have direct communications that are secure- even from the captain.
