Environmental Assessment and Regulatory Impact Review for a Regulatory Amendment to Implement Requirements for Electronic Reporting of Alaska Groundfish Fisheries Data

Communication between the fishing industry and NMFS is a critical element of successful fisheries management. Industry submits various reports to NMFS for fisheries management. Observers also submit reports of catch to the NMFS Observer Program for use by in-season management. These reports are crucial to effective in-season management of the groundfish quotas and bycatch allowances. At present, most industry and many observer reports are submitted by fax. As a result transmission and processing of reports is costly, time-consuming, and can be inefficient both for NMFS and the industry. Because of the method by which reports are currently submitted and the burden of data entry, information available for management is often not current with the real-time status of the fishery. Electronic communication of reports would greatly improve efficiency and reduce the costs associated with report submission and processing. Implementation of requirements for hardware and software that would support electronic transmission of in-season data in a more timely and efficient way would benefit both NMFS and the industry.