The Sustainable Fisheries Division Permits Program issues around 300 permits annually for pelagic longline and troll & handline, bottomfish, crustacean (lobster and shrimp), coral reef, and precious coral fisheries. The permits are for American Samoa, Guam, Hawaii, Northern Mariana Islands, Pacific Remote Islands, and Pacific Marine National Monument areas. These permits are linked to Fishery Ecosystem Plans managing Federal fisheries within the Exclusive Economic Zones around these areas.

Hawaii law requires that all fishers who take marine life for commercial purposes report their catch and effort to the Hawaii Division of Aquatic Resources (DAR). From 1948 through 2009, fishers submitted their effort and catch using paper forms supplied by DAR. The forms were revised multiple times over the years therefore the exact elements tracked depends on the year. In January 2010, DAR launched a self reporting web application to replace the paper forms. A minority of fishers still submit paper forms which are then entered into the web application by DAR staff. All data from 1948 through today has been migrated into a single modern database.

The Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), Division of Fish and Wildlife (DFW) staff conducted shore-based creel surveys which have 2 major sub-surveys; one to estimate participation (fishing effort), and one to provide catch-rate (CPUE), species composition data, and size of fishes. As is the case for all of these shore-based surveys, shore-based means fishing without a powered boat and can include effort such as spearfishing. DFW made early attempts at shore-based creel surveying back in the early years, but many problems existed and there were limited resources available. It is not likely that the older data was converted from the Apple to the PC environment, but this needs to be checked. A new survey design was created and implemented in about 2005 and is continuing. It has mostly focused on the west coast lagoon side of Saipan but recently has been extended to the south and part of the west coast where some shoreline areas are accessible as well. These data are considered confidential.

In 1990 the local government made it mandatory for local vendors to participate in this monitoring program and it is continuing. The Department of Marine and Wildlife Resources (DMWR) issues numbered books of Fish and Shellfish Receipt forms to all wholesale buyers of fish who resell fish to the retail market, either whole or prepared. This receipt has evolved over time to include fish sales imported by local businesses from other islands such as Tonga or Western Samoa. Vendors are required to complete an invoice for each purchase and record the fisher (or boat) selling the fish, along with the species category, method used, weight, and price for the fish purchased. Invoices are submitted to DMWR staff who enter the data into the data processing system. Generally speaking the fishing activities occur fairly close to the island of Tutuila as most of the boats that sell fish locally are small. There are some local sales of longline caught fish and these catches could have been made hundreds of miles from Tutuila as the longline vessels have a greater range of operation. These data are considered highly confidential.

This inport record serves as a repository for two PIFSC Human Dimensions projects that examined the role of compliance in Western Pacific Fisheries. The first project examined the 'seascape' of compliance or the scope of compliance issues in the Western Pacific Region. For this project, we conducted 29 unstructured interviews with compliance experts across the region and conducted a detailed literature review on scientific studies published on compliance in this geography. The second project used qualitative research methods (38 unstructured interviews with Hawaii longline captains, owner-operators, and crew) to better understand the role that Hawaii longline fishers play in further reducing protected species bycatch in the Hawaii longline fishery.

Foreign longline vessels have transshipped fish through Guam to Asia since the late 1980s. This database captures at a near census level all activities of transshipment, including species ID and landed weight of each individual fish, whether transshipped or rejected, plus the name and country of origin of the vessels and approximate area of fishing. The data are collected and recorded by transshipment agents and provided to the Guam Bureau of Statistics and Plans (BSP, formerly the Guam Dept of Commerce) for entry into this database. These data are considered highly confidential.

The Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), Division of Fish and Wildlife (DFW) collects 'Trip Ticket' or purchase invoice data from vendors that buy fish directly from the fishermen. This system is similar to other trip ticket invoice systems, except that compliance is voluntary and invoices are only provided to dealers, hotel, stores, fish mobiles etc. on the island of Saipan. Participation has deteriorated in recent years as the economy has suffered and businesses have failed and struggled to stay in existence. DFW has always run the system and have efforts underway to improve compliance and actually make such commercial vendor reporting mandatory through local legislation, although this has been tried in the past and failed. Data are collected by vendors and may include a fisherman's identity and include number of pieces, weight, and price for some individual species and some species groups. Data exist back to about 1983 and are continuing, although the relative coverage of the fisheries has varied over the time series. These data are considered highly confidential.

This PIFSC Research Cruises feature service provides access to ship tracklines associated with Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center research cruises in the Mariana Archipelago. Included are cruises carried out onboard NOAA Ships Oscar Sette and Hi'ialakai during 2003-2014.

The DMWR staff has also conducted shore-based creel surveys which also have 2 major sub-surveys; one to estimate participation (fishing effort), and one to provide catch-rate, species composition, and size frequency data. The amount of area covered by the surveys has varied over the years from just a central part of Tutuila to 3 separate routes on Tutuila plus sampling on the Manu'a Islands of Ofu-Olesega and Ta'u. There was a break in survey coverage for a number of years due to resource limitations, but surveys on Tutuila have been conducted again since about 2001. There has been some break in coverage over the years due to various hurricanes and a major tsunami, but generally speaking the surveys have been conducted routinely and in a fairly standardized manner. Not all areas of the islands are covered due to resource limitations. These data are considered confidential.

Hawaii law requires that fish dealers report all purchases made directly from fishers to the Hawaii Division of Aquatic Resources (DAR). The term "fish dealers" includes fish auctions, fish markets, stores, restaurants, or any business buying fish directly from fishers, and even fishers themselves if they peddle their own fish. In January 2000, DAR implemented a computerized data processing system for fish dealer data collected state-wide. From 2000 through 2019, most dealers submitted paper forms supplied by DAR while a few of the larger dealers provided data electronically. In June 2016, DAR launched a self reporting web application used by fishers who peddle their own fisher. In October 2019, DAR launched a self reporting web application for use by fish dealers buying fish directly from fishers. Currently the majority of sales are self reported.