Purpose of Today’s Presentation

1. Documenting the Participation of Fishing Vessel Crew Members in Alaska’s Commercial Fisheriesby Geron Bruce, Alaska Department of Fish and Game, Commercial Fisheries

2. Purpose of Today’s Presentation • To provide an update on the status of developing a system to document crew member fishing participation. • To describe some of the major considerations that must be addressed in deciding how to collect and store information on crew members’ fishery participation.

3. Current Status of Crew Member Project • Governor has requested funding from the legislature for this project. • $151,000 in the operating budget. • $150,000 in the capital budget.

4. What Will the Increased Funding Pay For? • Contracting with a private information technology firm to analyze the various options for how crew data might be collected and to recommend a preferred option. • Contracting with a private IT firm to assist ADF&G in the design, development, testing, and deployment of a crew member data collection system. • A new ADF&G research analyst. • A new ADF&G analyst programmer.

5. What Will the Research Analyst Do? • Prepare and issue RFPs, lead evaluation of bidders and selection of contractors. • Administer contracts and be a liaison between contractor and ADF&G. • Organize and staff the public advisory committee. • Once the system is in place, manage the data, ensure its quality and completeness, perform selective auditing. • Administer appropriate confidentiality policies and procedures. • Provide analysis and reporting of data. • Along with analyst/programmer provide user support.

6. What will the Analyst/Programmer Do? • Work closely with the contractors during the analysis of options and the development of the preferred system. • Develop the programming skills and experience with the system developed so it can be maintained after the contractor is gone. • Maintain and modify the system over time as necessary. • Work with the research analyst in developing the analytical and reporting capabilities of the system. • Provide technical support for users.

7. Benefits from Crew Member Data • Allow more complete analysis of the economic importance of commercial fishing to the state economy. • Enable communities to estimate contributions from commercial fisheries to their local economy. • Evaluate how changes in fisheries management might effect crew members, local communities, and the state economy. • Evaluate how changes in non-fishing related economic activities might effect the economic benefits of commercial fishing. • Enable communities to fulfill federal and state reporting requirements associated with the state or federal community assistance programs.

8. General Issues to be Considered in Determining How to Collect Crew Information • Data collection and maintenance is expensive; system needs to be efficient and no more complex than necessary to do the job. • Data collection has to be scaled appropriately for the variety of fisheries and circumstances within Alaska. • Current data collection systems are self-reporting. • Individual harvest information is subject to confidentiality provisions. • Should crew member data be collected for fisheries occurring completely in federal waters?

9. Issues Associated with a Crew Member Fishery Participation Data Collection System • Who records crew participation? • When is participation documented? • What is the mechanism for reporting? • How is compliance with reporting requirements measured and ensured? • What features or attributes are going to ensure the support of individuals reporting and auditing the system? • Does it have the ability to link crew member fishing data with other databases such as landing reports? • Is there an audit and appeal process?

10. Options for When Participation Might Be Documented • At time of landing. • Throughout the duration of fishing via a log book or reporting form which is submitted at the end of the year. • On some periodic basis during the fishing year: weekly, monthly, quarterly. • Annually post season such as the Commercial Operators Annual Report.

11. Who records crew participation? • Processor/Tender Operator • Permit Holder/Vessel Owner • Crew Member

12. What is the Mechanism for Reporting? • Point and time of landing: paper fish ticket/ electronic landing report. • Electronic crew member reporting system that links to other electronic databases. • Log book. • Submission of annual post season report documenting crew activities.

13. How is Compliance Measured and Ensured? • Clear definition of the class of individuals responsible for reporting crew participation. • Ability to identify members of the class who actively participate in fisheries in a given year. • Identify individuals who were active but did not report crew participation. • Follow-up with individuals who appear to have failed to report. • Allow crew members to establish a user account and verify the accurate reporting of their crew participation.

14. Gaining the Support of Those Required to Report • Easy to understand reporting procedures. • Simple reporting procedures. • Adequate user support available. • Agreement among those required to report that there are clear benefits from reporting.

15. Linking Crew Member Data with Data from Other Sources All databases—crew member licensing, vessel and permit licensing, landing databases, and Commercial Operator Annual Report database, and crew member fishery participation databases—must be able to share data.

16. An Audit and Appeal Process • Create a way for individual crew members to review their fishery participation data and file an appeal, with appropriate documentation. • ADF&G would review the appeal and modify the individual’s crew participation data if warranted.

17. Probable Options for Further Consideration • Capture information on crew members in a separate database that can merge with data in other databases: licensing, fish tickets, eLanding, vessel and permit licensing, Commercial Operator Annual Reports. • Capture information on crew members at the time of landing by modifying the fish ticket system and eLanding reporting systems.

18. What’s Next? • Secure additional funding and hire staff. • Get a formal opinion from the Alaska attorney general’s office on the confidentiality issues. • Organize a steering committee of agency staff and public stakeholders to formalize involvement in the development process. • Bring other stakeholders into the process, particularly license vendors, processors, permit holders, vessel owners, and crew members. • Develop requests for proposals for identifying the best approach to collecting crew data and designing and developing a system to do that.