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Commercial Fisheries News
Volume 33 Number 8
April 2006
NMFS moving toward electronic FVTRs
GLOUCESTER, MA - It looks like the days of filing paper fishing vessel trip reports (FVTRs) are numbered.
The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) Northeast Regional Office is aiming to adopt an electronic reporting system that will make it possible within the next few years for many fishermen to file FVTRs electronically.
“Obviously paper reporting is obsolete,” said John Witzig, director of the NMFS Northeast Region’s Office of Fishery Statistics. “Our informal goal is to get away from paper and into electronic reporting by 2009 or 2010.”
With NMFS funding, two fishermen’s organizations – the Cape Cod Commercial Hook Fishermen’s Association and the Atlantic Offshore Lobstermen’s Association – are gearing up to test a promising new electronic reporting system this spring.
The system requires a fisherman to use a laptop computer to enter data into a specially designed software program. The program checks the accuracy of the information and then allows the fisherman to transmit the completed report through his vessel monitoring system (VMS) on the way home from a fishing trip.
Witzig is quick to add that there likely will be exceptions to this kind of system. NMFS is looking into setting up “kiosks” in outlying ports where fishermen who don’t have a VMS or a laptop will be able to enter a personal identification number or PIN and fill in their FVTR online.
Some fishermen already have to comply with some daily electronic reporting requirements. For example, everyone fishing in special access programs and in the US/Canada Management Area has to report their catch and discard data through VMS.
In addition to that information, the VMS also provides NMFS with the vessel permit number and where the boat is fishing. But the VMS alone isn’t equipped to handle additional data in the way that NMFS needs it, so fishermen participating in those programs must still submit paper FVTRs for each trip.
Paper filing
Under current FVTR rules, with few exceptions, owner-operators of vessels in the Northeast with federal fishery permits are required to submit a FVTR for each trip or, if the vessel did not fish for an entire calendar month, to submit a “did not fish” report.
Depending on where and how you fish, the reporting process can be time consuming and tedious, entailing the filling out of anywhere from a few pages to dozens of pages with often redundant information.
The regulations also mandate that FVTRs must be postmarked by the 15th of the month after the trip was landed. For example, a FVTR for a trip landed in June is due by July 15.
The penalties for failure to file a FVTR in a timely or accurate way can range from a slap-on-the-wrist warning to tens of thousands of dollars.
Time lag
From a management point of view, the biggest problem with paper reporting is that it creates a huge time lag in recording how many fish have been caught.
Once NMFS receives a FVTR, it is opened and date-stamped, according to Witzig.
“Then staff look at the report to make sure it is complete, legible, signed, and free of any fatal problem that would prompt us to send it back,” he said. “It is not a completed report until it is accepted.”
Then, using a labor-intensive process, the information in the report is entered into the agency database and is checked again for possible mistakes made not only by the fisherman but also by the technician who entered the data.
“The problem with the paper-based system is that it’s several months behind,” Witzig said. “If you complete a trip on the first of the month and the (FVTR) isn’t due until the 15th of the following month, it can take up to two-and-a-half months (for NMFS to get the data).”
Official records
In addition to more timely and accurate catch data, which are critical to quota management programs, Witzig said he believes fishermen will benefit from electronic reporting, too.
“The FVTRs are the official records of a vessel’s fishing activity,” he said. “It’s like an official bookkeeper.”
The electronic reports can be used to determine whether a vessel will qualify to fish in a particular area, is eligible for a particular fishery, and/or what share of a fishery a vessel might be eligible for.
And, added NMFS Outreach Coordinator Marla Trollan, “As we move toward IFQs, this is critical.”
IFQs is the acronym for individual fishing quotas.
Furthermore, Witzig said the electronic FVTR will offer fishermen ways to manage their own fishing and catch information in ways beyond the reporting requirements.
“For each permit, this will be like a bank account, where fishermen can check to see how many days-at-sea they have left and other information,” he said. “All that information ought to be available on demand.”
Dealer reporting update
Seafood dealers have been working with electronic reporting for nearly two years now, and it’s been a learning process for everyone.
In May 2005, about a year after the agency initiated the electronic reporting requirement, NMFS changed its rules in response to industry and internal concerns.
It agreed to allow large dealers, as well as small dealers, to report on a weekly rather than daily basis.
It also removed requirements to report inshore shellfish. The amount of information the inshore shellfish requirement heaped on to the system was pretty overwhelming and really not necessary, according to Witzig.
“It’s really a state issue,” he said.
NMFS also responded to dealers’ complaints about the amount of online time required to input landing information into the NMFS system by writing new software and giving it to dealers.
“It’s PC-based and doesn’t require time on the Internet. They just fill it out and then upload it to us,” Witzig said.
Compliance with the dealer electronic reporting requirements has improved, according to Witzig, but is not yet up to 100 percent.
“There are still compliance issues,” he said. “My office makes referrals (to the Office of Law Enforcement) weekly. The recalcitrant dealer really messes up our ability to monitor quotas.”
But, for the most part, dealers are becoming accustomed to the process.
“They’re getting used to it,” Witzig said. “It’s part of a learning process.”
Lorelei Stevens
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