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Increase in Employee Productivity
Using e-signatures to enable electronic reporting of logbook data should also help to increase employee productivity. Since this is a new reporting requirement for non-commercial fishers, an electronic logbook application should, at the very least, minimize the impact of gathering and analyzing these new data. (There is a statement in the regulatory amendment that edit checks in the electronic logbook application reduces the chances of data errors. There is no estimate of time savings to reporting entities from this improved data quality. The combination of time saved from having fewer NMFS staff on the dock and reduced errors in data reported is estimated to saving 21.8 days per year for NMFS staff in this region.)
Information Benefits to the Public
(I deleted the entry on data quality and its implications for transparency for now. Not sure that information benefits to this application apply like they do for NPS)
Reduced Reporting Burden
Based on estimates provided the upcoming Hawaii longline logbook, this analysis assumes a less burden for electronic logbook reporting than on paper. Estimates for burden reduction from the Longline log book state electronic versus paper logbooks will take one third less time. Based on estimated numbers of trips and sets per year, this yields an estimated savings of 2.9 days per year.
Reduced Cycle time for logbook reporting between NMFS and End Users
One substantial benefit that is gained by switching to an electronic process for logbook reporting is a reduction in time getting the logbook data in a form for further processing and analysis. The most noticeable speed increase is seen in the time it takes to transmit the logbook data to NMFS regional office for processing. There is the additional time it takes to convert the data to electronic form from the paper logbooks. The regulatory amendment did not quantify the decrease in cycle time for electronic submissions.