PacFIN Brief for 1981

[Complete 1981 PSMFC Annual Report (pdf)]

Fisheries Data Requirements and Mechanisms for In-season Management

In the past five years, fisheries management has changed rapidly from the setting of seasons prior to the beginning of fishing to in-season changes in regulations and closures of fishing. This dramatic shift in management strategy has placed tremendous demands on State and Federal governments to collect timely and accurate fisheries data. Are State and Federal governments meeting the needs of fisheries managers?

The separation of fisheries management into in-season and between-season decision-making helps to clarify our fisheries data problems. The between -season decision process allows time for data processing, error detection and correction, and analysis. On the other hand, in-season decisions require the use of incomplete, rapidly processed data with little time for analysis.

Past fishery data processing systems were constructed. by the States to meet the needs of between-season management and historical recordkeeping. Our current needs for in-season data have stressed the old systems until they are no longer functional and are being redesigned and rebuilt. The Pacific Coast States and the National Marine Fisheries Service have been steadily improving their fishery data systems to meet the needs for timely, accurate in-season data reporting. For example, in 1979 the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife had a 2-year delay in reporting landings statistics; now the delay is less than 2 weeks. This kind of improvement has been encouraged and stimulated by the Pacific Coast Fisheries Data Committee with funding from NMFS.

The purpose of the Pacific Coast Fisheries Data Committee is four fold:

1. To implement and manage a Fisheries Information Network (FIN) that aggregates summarized State and Federal fisheries data for use by fishery managers and associated agencies

2. To provide data management consultation and technical advice to the Fishery Management Council's Plan Development Teams and participating agencies upon request

3. To establish priorities and coordinate plans to improve the efficiency, effectiveness and timeliness of data acquisition and delivery with a minimum of unnecessary duplication

4. To promote the development and implementation of coastwide data collection standards to facilitate the merging of Pacific Coast fisheries data in the FIN

The geographic scope of the Committee extends from Alaska to California, and includes Idaho. Members represent the State fisheries agencies in this area as well as the NMFS Regions and Centers. The Committee began its activities in 1979 by implementing the Coastwide Data Files for 1974-76 on computers located at the NMFS-SW Fisheries Center. In 1980 the Committee completed a study of Pacific Coast fishery data needs and proposed the development of a Pacific Coast Fisheries Information Network (PacFIN).

In January 1981, a System Designer/Manager was hired to begin work on PacFIN. The PacFIN computer system is now being tested. This system collects, stores, and reports summarized groundfish catches made on the Pacific Coast by both domestic and foreign fisheries.

The Pacific Coast Fisheries Data Committee faces several future challenges:

- a regional salmon catch data base needs to be designed and constructed that meets the needs of Council management plans

- the operation of the Salmon Coded-Wire Tag recovery data system needs direction and improvement

- groundfish logbook data have been identified as an important component of management data, but processing and reporting systems need to be developed at the regional level to make maximum use of these data

- how should the many and often different types of biological data from a variety of State and Federal sampling programs be collected, processed, and integrated?

The Pacific Coast Fisheries Data Committee seeks to improve the State, Regional, and Federal fisheries data systems to meet the requirements of fisheries managers.

Pacific Coast Fisheries Information NetWork (PacFIN)

The current PacFIN system receives daily groundfish landings information (mailed monthly) from State and Federal entities extending from Long Beach, California to Seattle, Washington. Central processing occurs at the Northwest and Alaska Fisheries Center (NWAFC) and monthly management reports are mailed to the Pacific Fishery Management Council (PFMC) Groundfish Management Team. Input for the current system is derived from fish tickets (landing receipts), rockfish composition sampling data, and foreign and joint venture fisheries observations. Data items include: weight of the aggregated catch, number of landings for the aggregated catch, and dollar value of that'catch by port of landing. For each daily or weekly aggregated catch, certain keys are provided to identify and tratify the data, including day or week, species group, area of catch, gear, and port (or country).

The future PacFIN system at NWAFC will receive daily catch information via telecommunications, process the data and telecommunicate management reports to the various management Teams (Groundfish, Salmon, Shrimp), and to NMFS Regional Directors. It is envisioned that in the future, the Teams and Regional Directors will have remote terminals for ad hoc retrievals of management reports as they are produced at the Center. In addition, future extensions of the data base will include salmon catch, effort, and price data; and shrimp catch and price data. Types of data to be investigated include biological data for groundfish, salmon, and shrimp; logbook data (including effort); salmonid coded-wire tag data; and socio-economic data.