WCEFT Cost Benefits Analysis

Owned by Larry Talley - NOAA Federal
Last updated: Jun 10, 2009Version comment
2 min read

The benefits from enabling e-signatures gained by NMFS and NMFS' end users are qualitative in nature. Benefits 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 shift from paper to electronic filing and some are specific to using e-signatures to improve the West Coast E-fishticket application.

  • Reduced cycle time for submitting catch data will contribute to additional opportunity to access the Pacific whiting TAC. Under the previous paper-based system lag times from vessel landing until catch data was available for analysis were typically measured in months. Based on the fish ticket pilot and experience from other jurisdictions we expect to reduce this lag time to a few days. The Pacific whiting fishery is an overly constrained fishery because some bycatch species which have historically been a part 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. Over-harvest of bycatch species can result in closure of the Pacific whiting fishery before the Pacific whiting total-allowable-catch (TAC) has been reached. Timely catch reporting will allow the Pacific whiting fishery to continue, reducing the chance of over fishing to acceptably low levels.
  • Reduced reporting burden. Compared to traditional paper fish ticket reporting, the electronic reporting process will be more convenient and take less time.
  • Improved efficiencies due to more accurate and consistent data. Having the fish ticket collected electronically, with comprehensive edit-checks for valid or reasonable data, rigorously controlled data codes, and immediate feedback on detection of questionable data, will ensure cleaner data. There will be a reduction in data correction overhead for both NMFS and seafood processors.
  • Increase in employee productivity. Receiving the data electronically obviates the need to key in fish ticket data by the regulatory agencies (because the buyers are keying it in). Also, edit checks and immediate feedback on detectable errors make for more efficient data entry.
  • Greater information benefits to the public. Because this is an overly constrained 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, and possibly modeling differing fishing behaviors.