Operators participate in the program on a voluntary basis with a sampling regime which was established through scientific review to provide statistically robust estimates of total retained and discarded catches for use in stock assessments. The fishing industry is seen as the principal beneficiary of commercial catch data collected for inputting to stock assessments. Costs may be recovered from the overall fishery by means of levies or by direct billing of particular operators. Compliance monitoring forms part of AFMA's surveillance programs the costs of which, under the cost recovery policy applied by AFMA, are shared equally between industry and government. In the case of specific scientific data collection programs, such as the Integrated Scientific Monitoring Program for the South East Trawl Fishery , funding has come from both industry and government research sources but this matter is under review with a view to achieving consistency in approach on the funding and cost recovery of research-related monitoring programs.
Researchers also require the information to be of sufficient quality for further analysis.
Industry is generally aware of the need for sound information for management purposes, and emphasis is placed on generating high quality information at least cost rather than simply saving on costs. Confidentiality AFMA is required to keep all individual logbook data confidential. Catch and effort statistics released by AFMA are generally in an aggregated form to disguise the data provided by individual operators. Exceptions have been made where fishing may take place under a Scientific Permit or special purpose program and there is prior agreement under the terms of issue of the Permit that details of fishing operations will be released. AFMA may also be required to provide information to courts, where ordered to do so.