Per 50 CFR §665.14 the operator of the fishing vessel must write a complete and accurate record of catch, effort and other data on a NMFS Western Pacific Daily Longline Fishing logsheet for each set fished, within 24 hours after completion of each fishing day, and maintain the record on board the vessel. The vessel operator must submit (by hand or mail) the completed and signed logsheet to the NMFS Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center (PIFSC) within 72 hours (30 days if registered under a Coral Reef Ecosystems FMP special permit) of returning to port after each trip.
Since the inception of daily logbooks, NMFS personnel have executed daily dockside pickup of paper logbook forms, in addition to accepting hand delivery of paper logbook forms to NMFS by represenatives, captains, and owners of vessels within the Hawaii-based longline fleet. This procedure was established because more than 99% of the Hawaii-based longline fleet is home-ported on Oahu and NMFS personnel were already visiting the doccks on a daily basis to maintain their longline vessel inventory.
Although the current data collection system is working relatively well it is not taking part 660.303 operators of Pacific Whiting vessels delivering whiting during the primary season, and buyers of Pacific Whiting, are required to report deliveries on state fish tickets. In addition the buyer submits an electronic fish ticket for that delivery. To include as part of each electronic fish ticket submission, the actual scale weight for each groundfish species as specifies by requirements at 66.373 (j)(2)
and the Pacific whiting shoreside vessel identification numbers. The first receiver submits a completed electronic fishticket for every landing that includes whiting no later than 24 hours after the date the fish are received, unless a waiver of this requirement has been granted.
The original purpose of the state paper fishticket program(s) were to record catch for the purposes of imposing and collecting an excise tax on the landed product. As fisheries management matured, the landing data began to be used for fisheries management purposes. Currently, all landing data generated under this system is housed in the PSFMC PACFIN data base, which is the primary tool for managing commercially caught fish on the West Coast.
Although the current state paper fish ticket data collection system works relatively well, it does not provide the timely data necessary to manage the West Coast Pacific whiting fishery, nor does it take advantage of emerging technology that could improve the efficiency of reporting and record keeping while reducing human error and improving data accuracy. Maintaining paper logbook forms and the interpretation of such forms is subject to high levels of potential error due to bad handwriting and inaccurate recording.