May 5, 2010

Victoria, BC Canada

Electric Edge Systems Group Inc. (EESG) is pleased to announce that it has launched its EasyHails^TM system for the Groundfish fishery in the Northeastern United States. This follows the successful implementation of EasyHails^TM for the British Columbia hook-and-line groundfish fisheries in March of this year.

The EasyHails^TM system is a comprehensive software package developed by EESG to serve a wide variety of stakeholders in monitored fisheries. In British Columbia, groundfish fisheries such as Halibut, Sablefish and Rockfish have been monitored for several years. Monitoring includes the requirement for commercially caught fish to be weighed and verified by independent monitors when it is unloaded at the end of each fishing trip. This requires fishing vessels to provide advance notice to monitoring companies and government prior to leaving port to start fishing and when heading back to port after fishing. These notifications are referred to as "hails".

EasyHails^TM provides fishers with the ability to send hails electronically via satellite to monitoring companies. The systems' central portal provides monitoring companies with logistical tools to accurately and efficiently manage, organize, and report on the information regarding trips and scheduled offloads of catch.

Effective May 1, 2010, legislation was enacted in the Northeastern US, which provided incentives for fishermen to form industry groups known as "sectors". The Northeast sectors are subject to monitoring in the interest of managing the fisheries and avoiding the collapse of stocks that have seen rapid declines in recent years. Due to its experience with British Columbia fisheries, EESG was able to implement its EasyHails^TM system with minor changes. In the Northeast US, EasyHails^TM is now serving various sectors along with a major international fisheries monitoring company.

The electronic hails module of EasyHails^TM is the first of many such modules under development by EESG. Future modules will include electronic catch logs that skippers can fill in at sea, as well as data capture in the field for dockside monitors and observers that are placed onboard vessels. This suite of data gathering tools will offer a complete electronic view of each fishing trip and will be made available to fishing industries around the world.

According to Bryan Stevenson, vice-president and partner at EESG, "The global fishing industry is rapidly adopting better methods of monitoring, and the groundfish fleet in the Northeast US is a prime example. Our software is based on nearly a decade of experience working with Fisheries and Oceans Canada in the Pacific Region, and we are bringing the benefit of that experience to the world. Our aim is to assist in protecting ocean resources and to help the people that rely upon a healthy fishing industry through innovative technology".

Electric Edge Systems has been developing an electronic hails system. A "hail" is a notification message that must be sent by applicable fishing vessels at the start of a fishing trip, and at the conclusion of fishing activity before the vessel returns to port. Hail messages provide notification so that a "dockside monitor" can be stationed at the dock when a vessel arrives in order to verify the quantity of fish caught when the catch is offloaded.

The original intent of the "e-hails" project was to create a system for fisheries in the Northeastern USA (see September, 2009 news item). More recently, our work came to the attention of the groundfish fishing industry on Canada's Pacfic coast. In December 2009, we responded to an RFP from the Commercial Industry Caucus. Our bid was successful. As such, our e-hails system will be available to fishers as an alternative to the traditional method of submitting hails by voice, often over a satellite telephone connection to a call centre. Our e-hails system will provide a lower cost alternative with greater accuracy of hails data.

Fishers will have the option of switching to Electric Edge's e-hails system starting in late February, 2010. Electric Edge Systems is still developing a version of e-hails for fisheries in the Northeastern USA, which require an electronic hails solution to be implemented in May, 2010.

As a result of attending the 6th IFOM Conference in Portland Maine (see July, 2009 news item), Electric Edge Systems has begun development of a new "e-hails" system. This project is being undertaken in support of the transition of the Northeast fisheries to a sector-based catch share system, which is scheduled to come into effect on May 1, 2010.

The tracking of fishing activity and monitoring of catch is a key component of the changes to the fisheries in the Northeast. The new initiative requires fishing vessels to use electronic data communication to notify government agencies, "sector managers" and dockside monitors at the start of fishing trips and at the conclusion of fishing, before the vessel returns to port. These notifications are referred to as "hails". Hail data includes the expected date, time, and place of "landing" and the estimated amount of harvested seafood to be offloaded.

Upon returning to port, selected vessels will be met by a dockside monitor - an employee of independent organizations that verify the quantity of fish caught and report back to regulators and fishing industry groups.

Electric Edge Systems's "Electronic Hails" software will consist of onboard software to be installed on fishing vessels, and a central portal. The onboard system will transmit hail data to the central portal where it can be securely accessed and reported on by authorized government departments, industry sector managers, dockside monitoring contractors, and the fishers themselves.

On behalf of Fisheries and Oceans Canada I would like to thank Electric Edge Systems Group and in particular Bryan Stevenson and Phil Bailey for their significant contribution to the successful development of our new Electronic Monitoring program in the groundfish fisheries. Your system development efforts were key to finishing this very challenging and ground breaking 2 year project that has been called by some as "the most significant change to fishery monitoring in the last 30 years".

Your willingness to work long hours under challenging conditions and still produce a high quality product on time are noted and sincerely appreciated by the Department and industry. We would be pleased to act as a reference for your future work. Please contact Lorne Collicutt at 250-756-7273 for specific reference information. Please feel free to use this correspondence in any promotional material for your company. Once again, thank you and your hard work and perseverance during this important project.

Yours truly,

D. D. Radford

Greg Rusak and Phil Bailey of Electric Edge Systems Group have provided a wide variety of software development services to BC Ferries over the last four years. Most recently, I managed a major development project in which Greg and Phil were instrumental. The project involved the design, creation, and implementation of several mission-critical software applications that replaced legacy, mainframe-based systems. Greg and Phil were a pleasure to work with. Their skill, professionalism, and enthusiasm were greatly appreciated.

Cliff West, Senior Systems Analyst, BC Ferries

Electric Edge was easy to work with and laid out a clear plan of work that needed to be done and the costs involved. They were quick to respond to any concerns and corrections to be made as we proceeded through the work...we greatly appreciated their commitment.

Robert Harris, Director, Dr. Vodder School-North America