NCBF Benefits Statement

Owned by Larry Talley - NOAA Federal
Last updated: Nov 17, 2008Version comment
4 min read

Most of the benefits from enabling e-signatures gained by NMFS and NMFS' end users 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 Hawaii Non-Commercial Bottomfish Logbook application.

  • Reduced cycle time for submitting logbook data. This is an endangered fishery because some 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. Timly reporting will reduce the chance of over fishing because fisheries managers will have an opportunity to monitor the fishery and intervene if necessary. Timly reporting will also support the more intensive management which is likely to be required under recovery plans.
  • An increase in constituent participation and satisfaction. Many commercial fishers already use technology to track their catch as a means to increase their productivity. This electronic reporting alternative may allow those fishers to leverage their investment in electronic catch logging to also address their record keeping and reporting obligations. The potential also exists for independent software vendors to provide integration with navigation devices allowing direct recording of fishing locations which would reduce data entry workload and improve data accuracy.
  • Cleaner data and more data analysis opportunities. Having the logbook 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 logbook 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 manual logbook reporting, the electronic reporting process should be more convenient and take less time.


Higher User Participation Rate
Another foreseeable benefit of using e-signatures to support the Hawaii Non-commercial Bottomfish Logbook is an increased user participation and customer satisfaction. It will be possible for users, who are not commercial fishers, to complete their logbook submission at home using a web application that walks them through the process. As occasional reporters, it will be important to minimize burden and complexity to get the users to report their catch. (A little more info on the web application and how user-friendly is would help here). Some of these features include help text and response hints that can be associated with each field found on an online form. (Is this going to be true for this application?) These features provide a richer user experience and make reporting online easier, more interactive, and convenient than a paper process.

Increase in Employee Productivity
Using e-signatures to enable electronic reporting of logbook data should also help to increase employee productivity. Since this is a new reporting requirement for non-commercial fishers, an electronic logbook application should, at the very least, minimize the impact of gathering and analyzing these new data. (There is an open issue in my mind about whether there are edit checks in the web application or e-signature feature that will increase assurance in identity or reduce the changes of misreporting or data errors). It seems clearer that there are savings from not having to have NMFS personnel at the dock to collect the logs. Are savings from longline analogous?

Information Benefits to the Public
(I deleted the entry on data quality for now Not sure that information benefits to this application apply like they do for NPS)

Reduced Reporting Burden
Based on estimates provided the upcoming Hawaii longline logbook, this analysis assumes a less burden for electronic logbook reporting than on paper. Estimates for burden reduction from the Longline log book state electronic versus paper logbooks will take one third less time. Regulations for this project state that logbooks will take 20 minutes for each day. Should we assume less? How many trips per year should we assume for these recreational and subsistence fishers?

Reduced Cycle time for logbook reporting between NMFS and End Users
One 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. The most noticeable speed increase is seen in the time it takes to transmit the logbook data to NMFS regional office for processing. There is the additional time it takes to convert the data to electronic form from the paper logbooks.