The new Observer Program restructures and replaces what was originally considered an "interim program," which lasted for 23 years. Broadly speaking, under the interim program, vessels and plants paid for observers by the day at coverage rates specified in law based on days in a calendar quarter at-sea (not fishery as is often assumed) and on tons processed for shoreside processors. Under the interim program, catcher vessels between 60 and 125 ft in overall length were allowed to self-select which trips were to be observed. Because vessels less than 60 ft or those targeting Pacific halibut were not observed, the former static regulatory structure of observer coverage created not only an incentive for owners to change the length of their vessels (indeed a disproportionately high number of 124 ft and 58 ft vessels exist in the fleet), but also created a mechanism for owners, because of self-selected trips, to skew observer coverage towards trips with lower bycatch rates (e.g. pollock) and away from those with higher bycatch rates (e.g. most flatfish fisheries).

These data arise from a field study of groundfish catch monitoring in Kodiak, AK trawl fisheries. Two monitoring components were included in the study: 1) at-sea sampling methods used by observers to sample species composition of catch and 2) shore-side sampling of delivered catch by observers to validate landings species composition reports. The at-sea portion of the study consisted of a side-by-side comparison (two observers) of a proposed new sampling method and the standard sampling method. Observer data were recorded at-sea on paper and transferred to an Oracle database. The shoreside component of this study consisted of observer species composition sampling in plants for later comparison with landings data. The shore-side data were collected by observers in processing plants, recorded on paper and transferred to an Oracle database. Data collection started in April 2011 and continued through August 2011. Third party landings data (NOAA Fisheries, Alaska Regional Office, Sustainable Fisheries Division) that were used in the analysis are stored in an oracle database. Data for both project components (at-sea and shoreside) were collected during normal fishing activities onboard commercial trawl catcher vessels and during normal processing activities in shore-based processing plants.

Alaska groundfish fisheries observers have been monitoring domestic groundfish fishing activities in the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) off Alaska for over twenty years. The Fisheries Monitoring and Analysis Division staff has been responsible for training, briefing, debriefing and oversight of these observers. The Observer Logistics System, launched in December 2011, is the current computer tool used for observer logistics and contains data on individual observers back to 1990.

Fishery regulators and industry require near real time fishery statistics formatted appropriately for their software to record and process. This project is the result of the extract, transform, and load processes that provide that utility to these users.

Vessels fishing trawl gear, vessels fishing hook-and-line and pot gear that are also greater than 57.5 feet overall, and shoreside and floating processing facilities comprise the trip-selection stratum. Approximately 60 days prior to the start of the year, registered owners will receive a letter informing them that they are required to log all intended future trips for their vessel using a supplied username and password into a web-based system (that is also accessible by telephone). This system, termed the Observer Declare and Deploy System (ODDS), was developed by NMFS to facilitate the assignment of observers to future fishing events on a trip-by-trip basis. As described in the proposed rule, ODDS works by providing vessel operators (either owners or their designated captains) with an account through which they shall enter their anticipated fishing trips. More than one trip can be entered- three if the start time of the first trip and the end time of the last trip span more than 72 hours, six if not. Anticipated target fishery is not required- only the port of departure and landing with the anticipated start and end times of the trip. Each trip must be entered at least 72 hours before anticipated departure to allow the vessels? observer provider time to deploy an observer. If the contractor provider cannot provide an observer to the vessel, the vessel may be granted a release from coverage by NMFS and go fishing. If the provider obtains an observer for the trip, the vessel may still opt to defer a trip for up to 48 hours from the anticipated departure to account for unanticipated events such as poor weather conditions. If, however, after this additional 48 hour period has passed and the vessel has still not departed, that trip is cancelled by the ODDS, the observer is released from the vessel to be deployed elsewhere, and the vessel?s next logged trip will require observer coverage.

Observer data span more than two decades and multiple database development interations. To facilitate status of stocks authors and other users of these records, a data set separate from the OLAP was created which reformats and repackages vetted (debriefed) observer data from NORPAC into a common structure, format, and syntax. The granularity of current production data is compromised, however for the purposes of longitudinal research the data set is internally consistant, and spans the developmental boundaries.

One type of electronic monitoring of Alaska groundfish catch has been conducted by Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission using an electronic monitoring (EM) system to collect catch accounting data using video and sensor data of selected fishing vessels in Alaska. Video recordings of fish catch composition aboard selected vessels are collected are stored on hard drives in an effort to track vessel catch and discards to accurately debit discarded catch from the individual fishing quota (IFQ) account of each account holder. This information is collected in place of the sampling for species composition of the catch conducted by human at-sea catch monitors or observers. Reviewers of the videos enter data from the drives and maintain data integrity and quality. Raw, reviewed electronic monitoring data collected by Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission must have additional data items added to it to conform to the standard format of data normally collected by Alaska observers in order for the data to be processed by catch accounting of the NMFS Alaska Regional Office. The EM_OBSINT tables contain these transformed data. These data, like data collected by Alaska groundfish observers, and transmitted electronically to the AFSC and are the source data for those interfaces used for fishery management, scientific inquiry and fishing activity monitoring by industry.

The Blend was the system used by the NMFS Alaska Regional Office to monitor groundfish catch from 1991 until 2002. The Blend system combined data from industry production reports and observer reports to make the best, comprehensive accounting of groundfish catch. These data were used to manage quotas for groundfish in the Gulf of Alaska, Bering Sea, and Aleutian Islands. The blend catch data were also used as the basis for computing estimates of prohibited species bycatch. Prohibited species include Pacific halibut, salmon, herring, and crabs. Blend data were used for numerous regional and national reports, fishery stock assessments, and analysis of fishery management plans. The Blend system used a combination of industry reports and observer data. For shoreside processors, Weekly Production Reports (WPR) submitted by industry were considered the best source of data for retained groundfish landings. All fish delivered to shoreside processors were weighed on scales, and these weights were used to account for retained catch. Observer data from catcher vessels provided the best data on at-sea discards of groundfish by vessels delivering to shoreside processors. Discard rates from these observer data were applied to the shoreside groundfish landings to estimate total at-sea discards from both observed and unobserved catcher vessels. For observed catcher/processors and motherships, the WPR and the Observer Reports recorded estimates of total catch (retained catch plus discards). If both reports were available, the Blend System selected one of them for incorporation into the catch database. If the vessel was unobserved, only the WPR was available. In 2003, the Catch Accounting Sytem was implemented and took advantage of industry reports at a more detailed level, especially from shoreside processors. The Blend system was based on weekly data from processors and was not capable of accounting for some management programs -- including cooperatives, sideboards, complex seasonal allocations, Harvest Limit Area quotas, and quotas assigned to vessels of a particular size class. The Catch Accounting System replaced the Blend as the tool used by the National Marine Fisheries Service to estimate total catch in the groundfish fisheries off Alaska.

The GOA/AI Bottom Trawl Estimate database contains abundance estimates for the Alaska Biennial Bottom Trawl Surveys conducted in the Gulf of Alaska and the Aleutian Islands in alternate years. The estimates build upon raw and summary data available from the RACEBASE database and include calculated catch-per-unit-effort (cpue)s for principal species of groundfish and key invertebrates for each survey region. The cpues are averaged by survey strata, and then average cpues are multiplied by stratum areas which results in estimates of biomass and numerical abundance. Length and age data are combined with abundance to estimate the population at length and sex and population at age and sex.

The Catch Accounting System (CAS) creates total catch estimates for the groundfish fisheries in the Bering Sea/Aleutian Islands and Gulf of Alaska. Each year, quotas are established in the CAS that match the annual harvest specification tables for federally managed groundfish fisheries off Alaska. The output of the CAS is the total amount of groundfish that is retained and the amount that is discarded at sea. In addition, the system creates estimates of the total amount of non-groundfish species -- both prohibited species and non-target species -- that are caught in the groundfish fisheries. Prohibited species catch (PSC) consists of salmon, halibut, and several species of crab. All the PSC species have economic value in non-groundfish fisheries and therefore cannot be retained in the groundfish fisheries. Non-target catch are species like coral, sponges, etc., and catch of these species needs to be calculated in order to evaluate the impact of the groundfish fisheries on the ecosystem. The CAS uses a combination of industry reports and onboard observer information to provide an estimate of total catch and bycatch. Industry reported data consists of catch (landing reports) and processed product amounts (production reports), and these reports are electronically recorded and submitted to NMFS via eLandings. The observer data are collected by the Alaska Fisheries Science Center (AFSC) using a stratified sampling design. Other sources of information come from the Alaska Commercial Fisheries Entry Commission (CFEC), which issues permits and vessel licenses, and Vessel Monitoring Systems (VMS), which collect the position, time at a position, and course and speed of fishing vessels.