For Commercial fishing in the state of Alaska, each fisherman will be in possession of a CFEC card for the fishery in which they participate. When entering a landing report, you will need the harvester’s CFEC Card.

Below you will find basic information about how to read a CFEC and then instructions on how to enter CFEC permit details into eLandings.

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CFEC Card field descriptions:

1. Vessel Name - vessel associated with this card holder. Note, The card holder can be fishing from any boat. This may not be reliable data on the card.

2. Fishery Description - Species, Gear Type, Vessel Size and location. This field holds an abbreviated string describing the CFEC Permit (Type). For example, it may be Salmon Seine CI -

3. Card holder name - name registered with the state to fish with this permit.

4. CFEC Fishery - Typically a 4 character string. Salmon fishery codes begin with 'S'. King crab fishery codes begin with 'K'. Halibut fishery codes begin with 'B', etc. For example a salmon cfec fishery code might be "S01A" which means Salmon, Purse Seine, Southeast. Notice that the 'S' is followed by the gear code. The gear code for Purse Seine is 01.  For a complete listing see http://www.cfec.state.ak.us/misc/FshyDesC.htm

5. CFEC Permit Number - Unique five digit code followed by one or more letters. For example 12341N. Note, the 'N' at the end serves as a check digit. The last character(s) is typically a letter which is called a check digit. This check digit is the result of passing the rest of the code through a fancy math equation. So if we pass '12341' into the fancy math equation, we expect to get out 'N'. If the application runs the math and they don't equal then it will tell you that there is a problem with the permit. Usually it is a data entry error. Try to enter the data again.

6. ADFG Vessel Number - Number assigned to a vessel to uniquely identify it in state and federal records. Note, this number is on the card but the card holder may be fishing on another vessel at time of delivery.

7. CFEC Year Sequence - An example value would be '0901O'. This consists of the last two digits of the valid fishing year '09' followed by how many times the card has had to be replaced for the card holder '01'. If the card hold dropped their card over the side of the vessel and requested a replacement, the new card would have have '02', etc. The Valid year and number of card issuances is followed by a check digit which is typically a capital letter. In this case the check digit is the capital letter 'O'.

8. Serial/File Number - A unique card holder identification number that is used in place of a social security number. An example might be '000037'

9. Year of birth - for example 36 which would be interpreted as '1936'.

10. Active year - The year for which this card can legally be used for fishing. For example '2009'

For the most part, you will be interested in three fields

1. CFEC Fishery

2. CFEC Permit

3. CFEC Year Sequence.

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Entering CFEC Information into eLandings Processor Web

Option 1:

You can type the information directly into each field. These cards can be difficult to read and it can be hard to tell zero from the letter 'O' and one from the letter 'L', etc.

For the most part, you will be interested in three fields:

1. CFEC Fishery

2. CFEC Permit

3. CFEC Year Sequence.

You can enter this information directly into the Permit Entry Worksheet:

The example CFEC Card in the top right of the Permit Entry Worksheet will highlight the fields on the CFEC card corresponding to the field your cursor is in to help you enter in the correct information

Once you have typed in the information, click the "Save" button to close the dialog window.

Option 2:

A faster and easier way to enter the CFEC information is to use the magnetic stripe on the back of the card.  The magnetic stripe contains all of the information that is printed on the front of the card. To read the mag stripe, you will need a magnetic card reader. There are lots of models available. 

When you swipe the card, your computer will treat it as if you typed the information in from the keyboard. As such, it will type the magnetic stripe information where ever you currently have the cursor blinking on your screen. To demonstrate this, open a text editor like notepad, place the cursor in the notepad window so that it is blinking. If you swipe the card it will look something like this:

Now swipe the card through the card reader in eLandings. The content of the magnetic stripe appear briefly in the CFEC Mag Stripe field and then the Fishery, Permits and Year Seq will automatically fill. Do this for each CFEC card on the landing. Enter in other required information for the landing and then click “Save” to continue with your landing report.

Entering CFEC Information into seaLandings

To enter your CFEC permit information proceed to the Permits & Pounds tab of your groundfish or crab landing, then click on the “New” button underneath the Permits box.

You can choose to either use the Mag stripe reader at the top of the window, or key in the CFEC Permit information by hand. Once you have entered the applicable information, you can click on “OK” to proceed.

If you have multiple CFEC permits, you will need to save the single entry of the permit and then click on the “New” button under the Permit box for each CFEC permit that needs to be entered.

Entering CFEC Information into tLandings

You can do this in the tLandings system in one of two places

1. The Vessel Tab

2. The Permit Dialog

In the Vessel Tab, you can place the cursor in the first field (CFEC Fishery) and swipe the card.  A successful magnetic stripe read will enter the data and send the cursor to the Date Fishing Began field . 

A successful magnetic swipe read will enter the data in the various fields.

You can enter this information directly into the Vessel Tab or you can click the "Add\Edit" button to the right of the CFEC Fishery/Permit/Year Seq to open up a dialog window to help with the process. Once you have typed in the information, click the "OK" button to close the dialog window.

Option 2:
A faster and easier way to enter the CFEC information is to use the magnetic stripe on the back of the card.

The magnetic stripe contains all of the information that is printed on the front of the card. The data just looks a bit odd. For example the mag stripe may contain a string that looks like:
%BS01H 12341N^MATHEW SOCKEYE ^0901OCOMMANDER ?;12341090100003704951?
All the information is there along with some characters to help our software find what it wants. To read the mag stripe, you will need a magnetic card reader. There are lots of models available. They can be purchased for as little as $45.00 Here is one type we use.

This model plugs into a USB port and is ready to go. When you swipe the card, your computer will treat it as if you typed the information in from the keyboard. As such, it will type the magnetic stripe information where ever you currently have the cursor blinking on your screen. To demonstrate this, open a text editor like notepad, place the cursor in the notepad window so that it is blinking.

Now swipe the card through the card reader. The content of the magnetic stripe should be written into the text editor.

You can do this in the tLandings system in one of two places
1. The Vessel Tab
2. The Permit Dialog

In the Vessel Tab, you can place the cursor in the first field (CFEC Fishery).

Swipe the card. The content of the magnetic stripe is long. It will look rather funny in this little field.

A successful magnetic stripe read will enter the data and send the cursor to the Date Fishing Began field . Notice how all three fields - CFEC Fishery, Permit and Year Seq - are now filled out as well as the Permit holder name. This is much faster than typing the information in by hand.

NOTE: If you swipe a card with the cursor placed in a field other than the CFEC Fishery field, or if the swipe does not produce a good read, you may get incorrect data in one field. Error messages when saving the landing will probably point you to an empty CFEC Fishery field and/or the problem field. Delete any gobbledygook in the problem field, place the cursor in the CFEC Fishery field, and swipe the card again.

You can do the same kind of card swipe entry in the Permit Dialog. Click the "Add\Edit" button to open up the Permit Dialog window. Place the cursor in the Mag Stripe field

Swipe the CFEC card through the magnetic card reader.

Again we see the same data that looks like garbage.  A successful magnetic swipe read will enter the data in the various fields.  Note: this is generally considered the most reliable way to initially acquire the permit holder's name.

Click the "OK" button on the Permits window to close it. This will take you back to the Vessels tab and you should see.