U.S. Dept Commerce/NOAA/NMFS/NWFSC/PublicationsNOAA Technical Memorandum NMFS-NWFSC-31Commercial Fisheries Data Collection Procedures for U.S. Pacific Coast       GroundfishDavid B. Sampson and Paul R. Crone* (editors)Oregon State       University, Coastal Oregon Marine Experiment Station and Oregon       Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, Hatfield Marine Science Center       2030 S. Marine Science Drive, Newport, OR 97365, USA       
*National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Marine       Fisheries Service Northwest Fisheries Science Center, Fishery Analysis       and Monitoring Division Hatfield Marine Science Center 2030 S.       Marine Science Drive, Newport, OR 97365, USA
September 1997
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCEWilliam M. Daley, Secretary 

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration       D. James Baker, Administrator

National Marine Fisheries Service Rolland A. Schmitten,       Assistant Administrator for Fisheries

This document should be cited as follows:Sampson, D.B., and P.R. Crone. 1997. Commercial Fisheries Data Collection Procedures for U.S. Pacific Coast Groundfish. NOAA Tech. Memo. NMRS-NWFSC-31, 189 p. 

Paper copies of this report may be available for a fee from:National Technical Information Service5285 Port Royal RoadSpringfield, VA 221611-800-553-6847orders@ntis.fedworld.gov
CONTENTSPreface
Chapter 1 Introduction
	1.1	Motivation for This Document	1.2	Historical Perspective	1.3	Overview	1.4	Acknowledgments	1.5	CitationsChapter 2 - Groundfish Data Collection in Washington	2.1	Introduction	2.1.1	Geographical Overview			Major ports			Major fishing grounds and principal species landed			Port samplers	2.1.2	History of Data Collection Systems	2.1.3	Legal Authority to Collect Data			Obligations of fishers			Noncompliance	2.2	Fish Ticket/Landing Receipt System	2.2.1	Market Categories	2.2.2	Processing System	2.3	Logbook System	2.3.1	Groundfish Trawl			Collection			Data entry			Error checking	2.4	Species-Composition Sampling	2.4.1	A Hypothetical Example	2.5	Biological Sampling	2.6	Estimating Derived Quantities	2.6.1	Trawl Catch and Effort: Point Estimates			Tow-expanded values			Distributed values			Rockfish species catch through 1992	2.6.2	Trawl Catch and Effort: Variance Estimates			Tow-expanded values			Distributed values			Rockfish species catch through 1992	2.6.3	Non-Trawl Catch and Effort	2.6.4	Catch-at-Age	2.6.5	Relation to PacFIN	2.7	Acknowledgments	2.8	CitationsChapter 3 - Groundfish Data Collection in Oregon	3.1	Introduction	3.1.1	Geographical Overview			Major ports			Major fishing grounds			Principal species landed			Port biologists and field staff	3.1.2	History of Data Collection Systems	3.1.3	Legal Authority to Collect Data			Obligations of fishers			Noncompliance	3.2	Fish Ticket/Landing Receipt System	3.2.1	Market Categories	3.2.2	Processing System			Data entry and error checking			Data processing in Portland	3.2.3	Groundfish Landings Not Covered by the Fish Ticket System	3.3	Logbook System	3.3.1	Groundfish Trawl			Collection			Data entry and error checking	3.3.2	Other Gears	3.4	Species-Composition Sampling	3.4.1	Sampling Protocol	3.4.2	A Hypothetical Example	3.4.3	Processing System			Data entry and error checking			Sampling coverage of the fishery	3.5	Biological Sampling	3.5.1	Sampling Protocol	3.5.2	Age Determination Methods	3.5.3	Processing System			Data entry and error checking			Sampling coverage of the fishery	3.6	Estimating Derived Quantities	3.6.1	Landings by Area	3.6.2	Rockfish Landings by Species	3.6.3	Catch-at-Age	3.6.4	Other Estimates	3.7	Acknowledgments	3.8	CitationsChapter 4 - Groundfish Data Collection in California	4.1	Introduction	4.1.1	Geographical Overview			Major ports			Major fishing grounds			Principal species landed			Port biologist locations	4.1.2	History of Data Collection Systems			Documentation	4.1.3	Legal Authority to Collect Data			Obligations of fishers			Noncompliance	4.2	Fish Ticket/Landing Receipt System	4.2.1	Market Categories	4.2.2	Processing System	4.2.3	Groundfish Landings Not Covered by the Landing Receipt System	4.3	Logbook System	4.3.1	Groundfish Trawl			Collection			Data entry and error checking	4.3.2	Other Gears	4.4	Species-Composition Sampling	4.4.1	Sampling Protocol	4.4.2	A Hypothetical Example	4.4.3	Processing System	4.5	Biological Sampling	4.5.1	Sampling Protocol			Rockfish			Dover sole	4.5.2	Processing System	4.6	Estimating Derived Quantities	4.6.1	Landings by Area	4.6.2	Annual Estimates			Rockfish			Dover sole	4.6.3	Monthly Estimates to PacFIN	4.7	Acknowledgments	4.8	CitationsChapter 5 - State/Federal Groundfish Sampling Programs	5.1	Introduction	5.2	Sablefish	5.3	Lingcod	5.4	Pacific Hake	5.5	Acknowledgments	5.6	CitationsChapter 6 - Pacific Fisheries Information Network	6.1	Introduction	6.2	PacFIN System, 1981-87	6.2.1	Groundfish Data Collected by State Fishery Departments	6.2.2	Other Data	6.3	PacFIN System After 1987	6.3.1	Redefinition Project - Specification	6.3.2	Redefinition Project - Development	6.3.3	Vessel Summaries Subsystem	6.3.4	Transition to UNIX/Oracle Computing Environment	6.3.5	Limited-Entry Permit Subsystem	6.4	Current PacFIN System	6.4.1	Overall Data Flow	6.4.2	PacFIN Database Tables			Code list tables			Fish ticket tables			Proportion tables			Summary tables			Other tables	6.4.3	Central Processing - Update	6.4.4	Central Processing - Retrieval	6.4.5	Data Completeness	6.4.6	Confidentiality of Data	6.5	Acknowledgments	6.6	CitationChapter 7 - Comparison of the Washington, Oregon, and California Groundfish Data Systems and Discussion of Potential for Improvements	7.1	Introduction	7.2	Similarities and Differences Among the State Systems	7.3	Logistical Constraints	7.4	Opportunities for Standardization	7.5	Other Opportunities to Improve the System or Increase Efficiency	7.6	Recommendations	7.7	Acknowledgments	7.8	CitationsAppendix A - Examples of fish tickets used in Washington, Oregon, and CaliforniaFigure A-1 / Figure A-2 / Figure A-3 / Figure A-4 / 
Appendix B - List of common and scientific names for species of fish included in this document
PREFACE
The Pacific Groundfish Statistics Working Group convened for the first time in June 1992 in Seattle, with the primary objective of reviewing the data collection and processing procedures used to monitor commercial groundfish landings in Washington, Oregon, and California. At this meeting, the Group unanimously agreed that complete documentation of these procedures was long overdue and decided to embrace the daunting task of assembling the material that appears in this Technical Memorandum.

Earlier attempts at documenting data collection systems for U.S. Pacific coast groundfish fisheries resulted in rather general and superficial descriptions of the monitoring programs. This was primarily due to the very complex nature of the systems, in which the scope and intricacies of the data collection programs used in the three states had evolved largely independently. At the outset, the Group recognized that considerable attention, planning, and logistical and financial support would be needed to complete this Technical Memorandum. We thank all of the members of the Group for preparing their respective chapters in a timely fashion and for addressing the recommendations made by the editors.

We thank Stan Allen of the Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission and Rick Methot of the National Marine Fisheries Service (Northwest Fisheries Science Center, Fishery Analysis and Monitoring Division) for financial support, without which this document would never have been completed. We thank Julianne Pagel of the Publications Unit of the National Marine Fisheries Service (Northwest Fisheries Science Center) and Tonya Builder of the National Marine Fisheries Service (Northwest Fisheries Science Center, Fishery Analysis and Monitoring Division) for reviewing drafts of this report and for editorial suggestions that greatly improved the final version. Finally, we thank Alec MacCall of the National Marine Fisheries Service (Southwest Fisheries Science Center, Tiburon Laboratory) for encouraging us to undertake this task and to publish this Technical Memorandum.

To all who were involved, thanks for your perseverance and patience.

David B. Sampson

Paul R. Crone