DISCLAIMERS, CAVEATS AND OTHER USEFUL INFORMATION

May 9, 2007

NMFS National Statistics and PacFIN

Catch statistics published on the National Marine Fishery Service (NMFS) website may include data not published on the PacFIN website. For this reason some catch statistics available from the NMFS website that one would think would be comparable to catch statistics available on the PacFIN are not. An example of this is total catch for landings into California ports. The PacFIN database includes catch data from fish-tickets for a finite list of fish and animal species. This list does not include kelp or seaweed. The NMFS data does include kelp and/or seaweed. So, total catch for all species for California obtained from the PacFIN website will not equal the catch for all species for California obtained from the NMFS website.

Biological Data Subsystem

The Biological Data Subsystem (BDS) includes length, weight, and age data for all groundfish samples taken by California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW), Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW), and Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) during 1981 - present. Some of the data for groundfish samples from earlier years is also included. The BDS does not include any data for biological samples taken in the westcoast at-sea fishery.