A critical business driver for electronic reporting and e-signature in the Whiting fishery is reduced cycle time for reporting catch and bycatch data to management agencies. For the Whiting fishery to continue under current laws, fisheries managers must be able to ensure that catch of Pacific Whiting and bycatch of incidentally caught species (including overfished groundfish species and Chinook salmon) do not exceed harvest guidelines and bycatch limits. Rapid, near real-time electronic reporting by fisheries processors has been shown to reduce the cycle time for analysis of catch and bycatch from many weeks to a few days.
Most of the other benefits from enabling e-signatures are qualitative in nature. In large part, the benefits to e-signatures accrue from making it easier for end users to report or file electronically thereby minimizing paper reporting and filing of information. Some of the following benefits apply generally to the use of e-signatures in the shift from paper to electronic filing and some are specific to using e-signatures to improve the management of Whiting fisheries in the Northwest Region.
- Reduced cycle time for reporting catch data. This is an endangered fishery because some species which have historically been bycatch of this fishery have been determined to be over-fished stocks. Under the MSRA NMFS is committed to ending overfishing, establishing recovery plans for overfished stocks, and ultimately executing the recovery plans to restore the viability of the overfished stocks. Timely reporting will reduce the chance of over fishing because fisheries managers will have an opportunity to monitor the fishery and intervene if necessary. Timely reporting will also support the more intensive management which is likely to be required under recovery plans.
- An increase in constituent participation and satisfaction. Commercial seafood processors already use technology to increase their productivity. This electronic reporting alternative may allow those processors to leverage their investment in technology to also address their record keeping and reporting obligations.
- Cleaner data and more data analysis opportunities. Having this fundamental catch data collected electronically, with comprehensive edit-checks for valid or reasonable data, and immediate feedback on detection of questionable data, will ensure cleaner data. Cleaner data, available more rapidly, will provide more data analysis opportunities.
- Increase in employee productivity. Receiving the data electronically obviates the need to key in catch data to be used for analysis.
- Greater information benefits to the public. Because this is an endangered fishery due to overfished stocks, the fishing public is likely to have a high degree of interest in this data. Electronic data capture will provide potential for in-season analysis, possibly modeling differing fishing behaviors and showing the fishing public how they could optimize their opportunity to fish by avoiding areas with high bycatch of overfished stocks, etc.
- Reduced reporting burden on the public. Compared to traditional paper reporting, the electronic reporting process should be more convenient and take less time.
Increase in Employee Productivity
Using e-signatures to enable electronic reporting of logbook data should also help to increase employee productivity. Edit checks and immediate feedback on detectable errors make for more efficient data entry, resulting in some unspecified savings for reporting entities, and very specific savings for NMFS. Based on e-logbook pilot projects 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
Because this is an endangered fishery due to overfished stocks, the public is likely to have a high degree of interest in this data. Electronic data capture will provide potential for more timely public information.
Reduced Reporting Burden
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
The most 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. With electronic reporting, some data will be transmitted to NMFS more quickly (email transmission vs. pickup at the dock after landing). And because the data will be submitted in electronic form and has already undergone extensive edit checks, there should be very little delay from when the data has arrived at NMFS facilities to the time it is available for analysis. The reduction in cycle time is expected to be dramatic. Under the previous paper-based system lag times from vessel landing until logbook data was available for analysis were typically measured in months. (Primarily attributed to challenges transcribing hand-written logbook entries and the error detection/correction cycle.) Based on the e-logbook pilot and experience from other jurisdictions we expect to reduce this lag time to a few days, if not a few hours.