All Atlantic recreational fishing tournaments that award points or prizes for the catch & release or landing of billfish, swordfish, sharks, or tunas are required to register with NOAA Fisheries at least 4 weeks prior to the start of the tournament. To register, the tournament operator/director must complete an Atlantic Highly Migratory Species (HMS) tournament registration form (OMB 0642-0323) and submit it to the HMS Management Division. The form includes tournament name, date(s), location, and HMS for which points or prizes will be awarded, as well as the tournament operator's name, mailing address, phone number, fax number, and e-mail address. The form also gives the operator the option of ordering a specified number of Atlantic HMS recreational regulation booklets and other outreach materials for distribution at the tournament. All of the information is entered into the HMS tournament registration database, which produces a unique confirmation number that is provided to the tournament operator by the HMS Management Division for proof of registration.

This database identifies the universe of (permitted) vessels participating in open access commercial and recreational Atlantic highly migratory species (HMS) fisheries, including fisheries for bluefin tuna, swordfish, billfish, sharks, and BAYS (bigeye, albacore, yellowfin, and skipjack) tunas. Open access commercial vessel permits include permits to fish for BAYS and bluefin tuna and swordfish, and include charter/headboat permits. The data elements collected include identifying owner information, vessel description, vessel permit number, and home port.

Throughout the year the Highly Migratory Species (HMS) Management Division issues permits to researchers and many aquariums and private collectors. The majority of these permits require reporting their catch history for each year. Both permit information and catch data is entered into an MS Access database designed for the program.

Commercial fishermen interested in participating in the shark research fishery must submit an application and vessel/permit documentation for the Agency to consider. Annually, the Agency randomly selects participants from among applicants. The Atlantic shark research fishery is a program with 100% observer coverage that collects fishing and biological data on all sharks, including sandbar sharks (a species prohibited from being landed and sold), for stock assessments and other scientific purposes.

Electronic dealer reporting for highly migratory species (HMS) dealers was instituted to expedite dealer reporting of federally-managed HMS, including swordfish, BAYS (bigeye, albacore, yellowfin and skipjack) tunas, and sharks. All purchases of HMS from a federally permitted dealer are reported electronically and fed to the eDealer database. Data are used for inseason monitoring of HMS quotas, provides collaboration of fishing vessel trips, information for international reporting for The International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT), and domestic management of HMS.

Commercial fishermen interested in participating in the shark research fishery must submit an application and vessel/permit documentation for the Agency to consider. Annually, the Agency randomly selects participants from among applicants. The Atlantic shark research fishery is a program with 100% observer coverage that collects fishing and biological data on all sharks, including sandbar sharks (a species prohibited from being landed and sold), for stock assessments and other scientific purposes.

To document interactions and harvesting of marine mammals by fishing vessels in which there is an observer aboard

tournament cpue data

Catch and effort data from recreational billfish and tuna tournaments.

The Southwest Fisheries Science Center (SWFSC) Cooperative Billfish Tagging Program (CBTP) is a conventional mark-recapture research venture between National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) scientists and the global recreational and commercial fishing community, with efforts focused in the Pacific Ocean. The CBTP has provided conventional analog tags to anglers around the world to tag billfish and other large pelagic species to collect distribution, abundance, movement, and morphometric data valuable in quantifying life history parameters used in management. The CBTP comprises the Billfish Tagging Program and the International Billfish Angler Survey. All three components require year-round operations to distribute tagging equipment, deliver and receive surveys, and process, store, and manage data.