Introduction
The three natural resource management agencies tasked with commercial fisheries management in Alaska are;
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G),
The International Pacific Halibut Commission (IPHC), and
NOAA Fisheries Service - Alaska Region (NMFS-AK).
Since 2001, these agencies have been working to develop consolidated landing, production, IFQ , and electronic vessel logbook reporting from a sole source. This collaborative effort is known as the Interagency Electronic Reporting System (IERS) and was developed with funding provided through the Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission. Early on, the IERS Steering Committee identified web-based electronic reporting as the preferred platform to meet the goals of real-time data availability for inseason managers to monitor commercial catch, and for real-time quota share management.
The web-based reporting component of this system is called eLandings and a secondary application was designed and developed for installation on local computers for the at-sea, catcher processor fleet. This type of application is frequently referred to as a 'desktop' application and is called seaLandings.
This User Guide will focus exclusively on instructions for the use of the eLandings web application.
The eLandings application provides industry with the ability to submit landing reports, which in turn generates fish tickets that document IFQ fisher/processor quota harvest, and processor production information from a single location based on the number of CFEC permits entered.
The information submitted via the web application, eLandings, is stored in a single repository database. ADF&G, IPHC, and NMFS-AK copy data submitted by industry to their individual data systems.
Data Flow Model
This electronic commercial harvest reporting provides several benefits for fisheries management agencies and industry when compared to current record keeping and reporting. The most obvious benefit is a sole source reporting site for landing and production data. Fisheries managers, individual processing facilities, and the parent company will have the ability to obtain landing report catch, production, and logbook information immediately. Additional benefits include:
Significant reduction of redundant reporting to management agencies.
Immediate data validation when the landing, IFQ, or production report is submitted.
Real time harvest data availability to management agencies.
Higher quality data is available due to electronic entry which reduces data errors.
Application function to allow processors to import or export the catch and production information they submit, facilitating one time data entry for processors (data extraction).