Improving the Collection, Management, and Use of Marine Fisheries Data (2000) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:
General Issues in the Collection, Management, and Use of Fisheries Data
General Issues in the Collection, Management, and Use of Fisheries Data
Pages 59-130
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From page 59... ...
Research vessels of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and commercial fishing vessels operating under charter agreements with NOAA are used to conduct surveys of fish abundance.
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From page 60... ...
Stock assessment is a critical use of fisheries data and is often considered its primary use. The committee devoted a significant portion of its attention to the data used in stock assessments, using the summer flounder fishery as a case study.
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From page 61... ...
These misgivings are exacerbated by problems of timeliness and accessibility and by perceived conflicts of interest; NMFS not only collects the data but also conducts stock assessments, makes policy recommendations to councils, enforces fishery regulations, and makes judgments about the policy recommendations and fishery management plans prepared by the regional councils. For many fishermen these multiple responsibilities of a single agency create some mistrust regarding the collection and use of fisheries data.
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From page 62... ...
Data Needed for Different Management Methods What biological, economic, and social data are most needed to provide assessments suited to five common management methods? · current state of the fishery · management goals and measures of their achievement of intended effects · management actions needed to achieve management goals Five common management methods include (Table 3-2~: · Total allowable catch (TAC)
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From page 63... ...
GENERAL ISSUES IN THE COLLECTION, MANAGEMENT, AND USE OF FISHERIES DATA TABLE 3-2 Requirements for Biological, Social, and Economic Data For Five Common Management Methods 63 Management Method Data Requirements TAC-based Catch and effort data Fishing mortality rate Annual TACs and estimation of recruitment Social and economic impacts of management Likelihood that regulations will foster misreporting of fishery-dependent data, including economic and regulatory discardsa Economic contributions of recreational and commercial fisheries, including supporting industries Distribution of catch among gear types and between commercial and recreational fishermen Effort management Catch and effort data Fishing mortality rate Social and economic impacts of management Optimal harvesting and processing capacity Present participation of individuals in the fishery Dependence on the fishery How efficiency of effort has changed and how effort is allocated across different species and sizes of fish Likelihood that regulations will foster misreporting of fishery-dependent data, including economic and regulatory discards Economic contributions of recreational and commercial fisheries, including supporting industries Distribution of effort and likely impacts of capacity reduction approaches Gear restrictions and Catch and effort data fish size limits Size distribution of fish being caught Selectivity of gear Size at maturity Age at first capture Encounter rate and release mortality of undersized fish Compliance with size limits Social and economic impacts of management Economic contributions of recreational and commercial fisheries, including supporting industries Impact of regulations on fishing behavior, especially where fishery-dependent data are used for stock assessments Closed areas Distribution of fish (by size and maturity, within and outside the closed areas) When and at what rate fish move in and out of the area Catch and effort data outside the closed area Social and economic impacts of management Economic contributions of recreational and commercial fisheries, including supporting industries Distribution of catch among gear groups and between commercial and recreational fishermen (continuedJ
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From page 64... ...
However, for heavily exploited fisheries in which the spawning stock biomass has been substantially reduced from unfished levels, recruitment is often an important component that needs to be monitored, because only a few poor recruitment years are needed for the population to crash. Effort quotas require that changes in
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From page 65... ...
fishery management plans requires accurate and precise estimates of current stock status, minimum levels of spawning stock biomass, and fishing mortality. The higher the rate of exploitation, the more precision is needed to manage a stock adequately from a biological perspective.
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From page 66... ...
Pacific Islanders use coastal fish species and tuna for similar purposes. Data related to ceremonial and subsistence users are collected for inland waters and Pacific coastal waters and used in stock assessments.
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From page 67... ...
In addition to surveys of fish abundance and population characteristics, the states, NMFS, other agencies, and academic scientists collect data related to other components of marine ecosystems and marine environmental conditions in an attempt to understand how fishing affects marine ecosystems and how marine environmental conditions affect fish populations. In general, the purpose of stock assessment activities is to monitor changes in the abundance of fish populations over time in order to evaluate the effects of past and present fishing activities on fish population trends and to predict the consequences of future fishery management decisions.
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Hydroacoustic techniques are most useful for estimating the abundance and biomass of single-species schools of mid-water fish, such as pollock and whiting in the North Pacific Ocean and herring, mackerel, butterfish, and squid in the North Atlantic Ocean. A new generation of fishery research vessels is being designed to meet standards developed by the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES, 1995)
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From page 74... ...
Presently, the Gulf commission continues to conduct the MRFSS intercept surveys and newly adopted charter vessel data collections under a fiscal year 2000 cooperative agreement with NMFS. The same data are used for fisheries management within individual states and for federal management through NMFS stock assessments and regional fishery management council .
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From page 75... ...
This requires the survey to cover a very large area to include the stock areas of all species. For example, the biannual East Coast bottom trawl survey covers the entire continental shelf from Cape Hatteras to Nova Scotia (4 to 200 fathoms depth)
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From page 76... ...
In terms of days fished, surveys may represent a small fraction of the effort expended on the grounds by the commercial fleet. For example, for summer flounder, survey days equal about 0.1 percent of the days fished by commercial fishermen.
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From page 77... ...
provide an evaluation of a stratified random design for a groundfish survey. Appendix C presents an evaluation specifically for the NMFS winter bottom trawl survey, including summer flounder.
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From page 78... ...
An important application of adaptive sampling could feature commercial fishermen as adaptive samplers in joint NMFS and industry sampling activities. Generally, commercial fishing vessel skippers do not fish at pre-determined locations but respond to encountered fish abundances.
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From page 79... ...
Even though more fish were being caught, unbiased or nearly unbiased estimates of fish abundance were available, since the adaptive survey had been well designed by the biologists involved whose primary concern was increasing precision by focusing more of the sampling effort in areas with greater fish abundance. To implement such adaptive sampling programs widely, more research is needed regarding the most effective designs to use in cooperation with commercial fisheries, data needs (including accurate geographic information and use of acoustic and other auxiliary data)
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From page 80... ...
However, monitoring the status of the ecosystems more inclusively requires maintaining or enhancing the collection of abundance data for non-target species (e.g., the California Cooperative Oceanic Fisheries Investigations) and conducting process studies such as the Global Ocean Ecosystems Dynamics program.
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From page 81... ...
Therefore, collection of environmental data and use of such data in future stock assessments is an important adjunct to estimation of spawning stock biomass. Regime shifts can change the productivity of major ocean basins and there is evidence that this has occurred in the North Pacific Ocean (Francis and Hare, 1994; Francis et al., 1998; Hare et al., 1999)
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From page 82... ...
Cost of fishing Catch per unit effort Gear type Vessel size and power Crew size Fisherman or fishing vessel identifier Logbooks, observers Logbooks, observers Port sampling of landings, observers Logbooks, landing surveys, VMS, observers Landing sales receipts Logbooks, landing surveys, observers Logbooks, landing surveys Logbooks, landing surveys Logbooks, landing surveys, observers Logbooks, landing surveys Logbooks, landing surveys, observers Logbooks, landing surveys Intercept surveys, angler diariesa Intercept surveys, angler diaries Limited sampling from intercept surveys Intercept surveys, angler .
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From page 83... ...
the error associated with this process, whether random or systematic, will propagate itself into assessment estimates. Commercial Fisheries Stock assessment scientists have long been concerned about biases and other inadequacies in commercial fishery-dependent data of all 0 ~ .
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From page 84... ...
Some additional federal and state fisheries are managed by the interstate commissions or by states and have their own logbook programs. For example, Washington, Oregon, and California have a mandatory tri-state trawl logbook program coordinated by the Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission.
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From page 85... ...
They can be compared with logbook data, biological data, days-at-sea estimates made from call-in systems, and observer data. The weighout
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From page 87... ...
are provided to port agents by NMFS stock assessment scientists (Burns et al., 1983~. For West Coast groundfish, the suggestions for sampling schedules come primarily from the Pacific Fishery Management Council' s Groundfish Management Team.
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From page 90... ...
showed that variability of estimates remain high until 50-70 percent of hauls are sampled and for rare bycatch species, uncertainty can remain high even when 100 percent of vessels are covered. Observer programs are expensive and tend to focus on fisheries for which the probability of interactions of fishing operations with protected species (e.g., marine mammals, marine turtles, and seabirds)
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From page 91... ...
Another example is the 25 percent observer coverage of the scallop harvesters in the 1999 experimental opening of Georges Bank closed areas designed by the New England Fishery Management Council. This provision was included in the management package to obtain better information related to the bycatch and discard of yellowtail flounder and other species that the closed areas were designed to protect, and to help gauge the impact of scalloping on the seafloor habitat.
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From page 92... ...
102-567) to conduct a study that would consider "active, transponderbased systems and passive, vessel signaturebased technologies capable of localizing or identifying individual vessels without the use of vessel-carried transmitters." NOAA reported back to Congress on satellite capabilities for fisheries enforcement (NOAA, 1993)
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From page 93... ...
Misreporting and Data Fouling Gallagher (1987) reviewed several factors that may contribute to commercial fishermen's lack of cooperation with mandated reporting and other management requirements, including allowable gear.
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From page 94... ...
Recreational Fisheries Survey Series Historically, mortality from recreational fishing was thought to be low compared to that of commercial fisheries. This perspective changed for some marine fisheries as an increasing number of persons moved to coastal counties and as growth in disposable income resulted in increased marine recreational fishing.
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From page 95... ...
Recreational fisheries data from Texas are provided to NMFS for stock assessments, but are not included in the MRFSS database. The survey does not conduct data collection for Hawaii, where a large portion of the population is involved in non-commercial fishing; the recreational catch is relatively unknown there.
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From page 96... ...
(catchleffort~intercept survey Thus, the intercept survey is intended to supply the ratio needed to expand effort estimates from telephone surveys to total catch. Intercept surveys also provide the ratio estimate of directed effort that is expanded from the telephone survey to estimate total directed effort.
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From page 97... ...
made by anglers from noncoastal counties is estimated from the intercept survey; the survey does not account for possible correlations between distance of residence from the coast and frequency of fishing. The intercept surveys are also the only source of information on the species and size composition of marine recreational harvests.
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From page 98... ...
Marine Recreational Licenses Some coastal states require licensing of marine anglers, although many states exempt various categories of anglers primarily the elderly, young, disabled, and individuals fishing from shore (Table 3-9~. Selecting individuals to contact in telephone surveys using sampling frames based on licenses or
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From page 101... ...
As described in Chapter 1, using social and economic information to better understand fishery-dependent data can improve the process of estimating the current status of the stock. This may be the most costeffective method of improving stock assessments.
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From page 102... ...
Cooperation, Communication, and Review The committee attempted to determine whether data are collected cooperatively, how communication related to data collection is handled, and how the methods and results of data collection are reviewed. Cooperation Cooperation with Industry Cooperation between commercial fishermen and fishery managers to improve fishery management, broadly called co-management, is not new.
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From page 103... ...
increased consideration of the socioeconomic aspects of the fishery in decisions. In this report, discussion of co-management is limited to partnerships involving commercial fishermen in the data collection and research aspects of fisheries management (i.e., selection of methods, data gathering, and data interpretation)
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From page 104... ...
Use of commercial vessels is most feasible with long-term charter situations or non-trawl fisheries.9 Benefits from improved cooperation accrue not only to managers and scientists but also to commercial fishermen, who may benefit through improved stock assessments, leading to more comprehensive and appropriate management plans and ultimately ensuring the continuation of the fishery that provides their livelihoods (Gallagher, 1987~. Hanna and Smith (1993)
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From page 105... ...
In 1999 the New England Fishery Management Council received new funding for council-identified research carried out with industry (Box 3-3~. The Magnuson-Stevens Act allows councils the discretion to develop fishery management plans that "reserve a portion of the allowable biological catch of the fishery for use in scientific research" (Sec.
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From page 106... ...
regional fishery management councils to follow (Box 3-4~. |} Center for Marine Conservation, Missing the Boat, www .
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From page 108... ...
Many of these concerns relate to broad comanagement proposals or arrangements, rather than more limited partnerships involving the employment of commercial fishermen and vessels to complement or augment fishery-independent data collected by research vessels. Additionally, differences in perceptions between fishermen and scientists must be overcome.
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From page 109... ...
Communication Data, and the information associated with them, must flow from fishermen to scientists and managers and vice versa for use in stock assessments and for implementation of fishery management actions. What makes communication difficult is the disparity in how data are perceived, the difference in the language used to communicate the issues, and the preconceptions that exist among scientists and fishermen as to the other's motivations for gathering or presenting certain types of data.
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From page 110... ...
Such reviews provide a useful quality assurance function, can be completed quickly, and can produce high-quality results that are comparable from year to year. Because of the limited number of stock assessment scientists outside NMFS and the large number of stock assessments that must be reviewed, the reality is that NMFS employees will have to form a major part of most regular reviews.
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From page 111... ...
Periodic, rather than assessment-by-assessment, re111 views could overcome logistical and other constraints. Independence of such reviews might be enhanced if they were conducted under the direction of the regional fishery management councils, perhaps through ad hoc review panels overseen by the scientific and statistical advisory committees to these councils (assuming these committees themselves are made up primarily of scientists outside NMFS)
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From page 112... ...
Federal Data Sources NMFS collects a variety of data needed for stock assessments and other fishery management purposes, as described in the first part of this chapter. NMFS has the primary responsibility for collecting biological, social, and economic data to monitor activities in the U.S.
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From page 113... ...
State-federal collaborative data management efforts were started as early as the 1970s and 1980s, for example, the state-federal cooperative statistics program in the southeast and Gulf of Mexico and the Northeast Marine Fisheries Information System. Systems 113 today include the Alaska Fisheries Information Network (AKFIN)
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From page 114... ...
In his June 1999 presentation to the committee, David Donaldson of the Gulf States Marine Fisheries Commission told the committee that only Louisiana and Florida have put in place the trip ticket programs needed to implement ComFIN, and that trip ticket programs are still needed in Texas, Mississippi, and Alabama. The FIN Committee emphasizes in its framework document how communication with the Pacific and Atlantic coasts will also be established and maintained to coordinate with and benefit from their data management efforts and to ensure compatibility with a planned national commercial and recreational fisheries database system (GSMFC, 1996~.
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From page 115... ...
If the ACCSP does not adhere to federal data standards, it should not serve as a model for a federally funded national data collection and data management program for marine fisheries. OMB Circular A-130 Section 8b(4)
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From page 116... ...
401~. The act further specified that the recommendations should "integrate information collection programs under existing fishery management plans into a non-duplicate information collection and management system" (Sec.
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From page 117... ...
The committee was provided several examples of commercial data management from the North Pacific region (Dave Fraser, commercial fisherman, personal communication, 1999~. The first example is SeaState,~8 which provides two primary services to the North Pacific catchers and processors: (1)
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From page 118... ...
Other companies provide software to help fishermen manage their own data and remote sensing products to target their fishing activities. Data Quality Control Procedures The slogan appearing on the cover of the ACCSP outreach brochure is "Good Data, Good Decisions For Fisheries Management." This slogan epitomizes the need for good data quality for fisheries management and emphasizes that uncertainties in fisheries data and the assessments for which they are used make it difficult to balance the needs of fishermen with the conservation requirements of the resource (ACCSP, undated a)
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From page 119... ...
. A number of data management systems at regional and national levels have grappled with the issues surrounding maintenance of sufficient data quality to allow effective management.
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From page 120... ...
Cahall, NMFS, personal communication, 1999~. Development of organizational standards (e.g., the core set of data elements, standardized data quality assurance and quality control procedures, coding standards, and metadata)
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From page 121... ...
Since the FIS is at the conceptual stage of development, NMFS has an opportunity now to expand its current plans for developing national standards for certain data elements or coding systems to include development of an architectural framework for interoperability among fisheries data management systems. In fact, the ClingerCohen Act of 1996 instructs federal agency chief information officers to take responsibility for de121 veloping, maintaining, and facilitating the implementation of a sound and integrated information technology architecture (ITA)
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From page 122... ...
Earlier in this section, the statistical aspects of data quality were discussed. The following section describes the approaches to quality control used by planned and existing fishery data management systems.
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From page 123... ...
Processed data are then aggregated into a single file and further processed into tow-expanded logbook data to account for tows that were not keypunched.2~ Tow-expanded data are next processed with fish ticket data to generate expanded trawl logbook data. 21 According to Sampson and Crone (1997)
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From page 124... ...
The draft SOP manual notes that the Georgia Coastal Resources Division's statistics project is under the Commercial Fisheries Program in the Marine Fisheries Section. Historically, the project has been funded by the NMFS Cooperative Statistics Program.
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From page 125... ...
The need for standardized data elements to allow comparability among systems is apparent. The proposed FIS includes funding of $1.575 million to establish and implement criteria and processes for evaluation of data quality and data quality standards.
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From page 126... ...
. The proposed system recognizes the need for implementing national standards for a core set of data elements, data quality protocols, coding standards, and metadata.
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From page 127... ...
. Uncertainties of Data in Stock Assessments A good example of the potential complexity of data sources used in any fishery is the summer flounder fishery.
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From page 128... ...
. The uncertainty in model specification can be estimated only by challenging the data with different models and/or additional kinds of data, as was done through the committee' s analysis of summer flounder data.
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From page 129... ...
In these cases, fisheries data management could either gain from or contribute to overlaying data from other studies. 129 Management Information Needed by Councils The committee sent a list of questions regarding fishery data issues to the executive directors of each of the eight fishery management councils.
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From page 130... ...
Cooperation and Communication The committee did not investigate all possible communication links, but it did query the regional fishery management councils about how they obtain the data they need for management decisions and whether they wanted information in a different form or wanted different information. It is obvious that cooperation in data use is essential for effective management.
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