SEC. 4. DATA COLLECTION. 
(a) AUTHORITY TO REQUIRE VMS.—Section 305 (16 
U.S.C. 1855) is amended by adding at the end the following: 
‘‘(j) AUTHORITY TO REQUIRE VMS.—The Secretary 
may require, if requested to do so by a Council, a Vessel 
Monitoring System or other similar electronic monitoring 
technology for a fishery or specific sectors of a fishery under 
the jurisdiction of the Council. To the extent that the tech-
nology is required for enforcement or data collection pur-
poses for a limited access privilege management system, the 
cost of such a system shall be included in the costs that 
are considered in determining the amount of any fee re-
quired under this Act to be paid to participate in the fish-
ery. Any information collected under this subsection shall 
be treated as confidential and exempt from disclosure under 
section 402(b).’’. 
(b) RECREATIONAL DATA COLLECTION.— 
(1) ESTABLISHMENT OF PROGRAM.—Within 24 
months after the date of enactment of this Act, the 
Secretary of Commerce shall establish a program to 
improve the quality and accuracy of information gen-
erated by National Marine Fisheries Service rec-
reational fishing data collection programs, with a 
goal achieving accurate, useful, and improved data 
for each individual fishery. The program shall in-
clude— 
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(A) an increased number of intercepts above 
current baselines established by the National Ma-
rine Fisheries Service to accurately estimate rec-
reational catch and effort; 
(B) use of surveys that target anglers reg-
istered at the State level to collect participation 
and effort data; 
(C) collection and analysis of vessel trip re-
port data from for-hire vessels including party, 
head, and charter fishing vessels; 
(D) development of a weather corrective fac-
tor that can be applied to recreational catch and 
effort estimates; 
(E) an independent committee composed of 
recreational fishermen, other stakeholders, aca-
demia, persons with expertise in stock assess-
ments and survey design, and appropriate Na-
tional Marine Fisheries Service personnel, to re-
view data collection estimates and geographic 
and temporal issues, among other variables, re-
lated to intercepts, prior to the finalization of 
the catch estimates; and 
(F) identification of deficiencies in rec-
reational data collection (including with respect 
to fishing on private property, night-time fish-
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ing, and random digit dialing) and develop sam-
pling methods to correct the deficiencies. 
(2) PROHIBITION OF FEES.—The Secretary shall 
not impose any new fees on recreational fishermen for 
the purposes of data collection. 
(3) REPORT.—The Secretary of Commerce shall 
report to the Congress within 18 months after the date 
of the enactment of this Act, on— 
(A) the progress made in developing such a 
program; 
(B) whether the program has resulted in 
significantly better data for management of rec-
reational fishing, and if not, plans to correct 
problems in achieving that result; and 
(C) actions to continue to make improve-
ments in data collection. 
(4) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPROIATIONS.—To 
carry out this section there is authorized to be appro-
priated to the Secretary of Commerce $5,000,000 for 
each of fiscal years 2007 through 2011. 
(c) CONFIDENTIALITY OF INFORMATION.— 
(1) IN
GENERAL.—Section 402(b) (16 U.S.C. 
1881a(b)) is amended to read as follows: 
‘‘(b) CONFIDENTIALITY OF INFORMATION.— 
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‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—Any information submitted 
to the Secretary by any person in compliance with 
any requirement under this Act shall be confidential 
and shall not be disclosed, except— 
‘‘(A) to Federal employees and Council em-
ployees who are responsible for fishery manage-
ment plan development and monitoring; 
‘‘(B) to State or Marine Fisheries Commis-
sion employees— 
‘‘(i) as necessary for achievement of the 
purposes of this Act; and 
‘‘(ii) in accordance with a confiden-
tiality agreement between the State or Com-
mission, as appropriate, and the Secretary 
that prevents public disclosure of the iden-
tity or business of any person; 
‘‘(C) when required by court order; 
‘‘(D) when such information is used by 
State, Council, or Marine Fisheries Commission 
employees to verify catch under a limited access 
privilege program, but only to the extent that 
such use is consistent with subparagraph (B); 
‘‘(E) if such information is required to be 
submitted to the Secretary for any determination 
under a limited access program; 
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‘‘(F) that observer information collected in 
fisheries under the authority of the North Pacific 
Council may be released to the public as speci-
fied in a fishery management plan or regulation 
for weekly summary bycatch information identi-
fied by vessel, and for haul-specific bycatch in-
formation without vessel identification; or 
‘‘(G) when the Secretary has obtained writ-
ten authorization from the person submitting 
such information to release such information to 
persons for reasons not otherwise provided for in 
this subsection, and such release does not violate 
other requirements of this Act. 
‘‘(2) PROCEDURES
TO
PRESERVE
CONFIDEN-
TIALITY.—The Secretary shall, by regulation, pre-
scribe such procedures as may be necessary to preserve 
the confidentiality of any observer information, infor-
mation produced by a vessel monitoring system, or 
information produced by other technology used on- 
board a vessel for enforcement or data collection pur-
poses, that is submitted in compliance with any re-
quirement or regulation under this Act, except that 
the Secretary may release or make public— 
‘‘(A) any such information that in any ag-
gregate or summary form that does not directly 
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