ELLSWORTH – Thistle Marine LLC has been awarded an $89,875 grant by the Maine Technology Institute to develop an automated data collection system for the East Coast groundfish fishery.

The grant funds development of an electronic logbook that fishermen can use to record quantity and types of groundfish caught in trawl, gill net or long-line gear. The logbook, connected to a boat’s Global Positioning System unit, has an oversized keypad, allowing fishermen to specify species, market category and disposition.

At the end of a trip, the unit can be plugged into a phone line and its stored data communicated to a database. Once that’s done, the data can be used to create customized harvest management reports electronically or in hard copy.

For information, call Richard Arnold, 667-8200 or visit Thistle’s Web site at www.thistlemarine.com.