An Expansion of a trip ticket system for Maryland commercial fisheries : Year 4

The Atlantic Coastal Cooperative Statistics Program (ACCSP) is a State-Federal endeavor set up to coordinate recreational and commercial coastal marine fisheries data collection and management. The ACCSP has developed standards for types of data collected for commercial and recreational fisheries. These standards include the data being collected at the trip level for each participant and the inclusion of a list of minimum data elements to be collected about each trip. In 2000 a pilot project, prior to ACCSP funding, was initiated in a relatively small portion of the state of Maryland (the section on the Atlantic Coast and ocean side bays). The pilot project introduced the use of a trip level logbook for all fisheries except oyster and clams (which are already captured at the trip level via a dealer reporting system) for the residents of Worcester and Wicomico Counties and the non-Maryland resident licensed fishermen. Trip level reporting in 2001, in the first year of ACCSP funding, expanded participation to include all commercially licensed crabbers statewide, while continuing to include the pilot project population. The project continued on the step-wise, 5 year planned expansion of participation in trip level reporting during the second year of ACCSP funding by including residents from Somerset County. The third year added fishermen from Prince George's, Anne Arundel, Charles, Calvert and Saint Mary's counties. The current step in the expansion process, year 4, includes all commercially licensed crabbers, and all commercially licensed finfishermen except for those who reside in the Maryland counties of Dorchester, Caroline, and Talbott. Project: 3-ACA-141 Annual Report Grant no. NA03NMF4740122