Dealer Reporting

This data set contains data that are used to monitor several fishery quotas that have been established for the Gulf of Mexico reef fish fishery management plan. Currently, the following four quotas are monitored by data from this database: shallow water grouper, deep water grouper, tilefish and red snapper. The species included in the grouper and tilefish quotas varies. The shallow water grouper quota includes 8 species of groupers; the deep water grouper quota includes 5 species of groupers; and the tilefish quota includes 4 species of tilefish.

These quotas are monitored using data that are provided by licensed seafood dealers that have been selected by the SEFSC to report. Not all dealers are selected to report. To keep the reporting burden to a minimum, only dealers that purchase a significant amount of the quota species are selected to report. The selected dealers are given two options that they can use to report the quantity of the quota species that they purchased. They can use a paper form and fax it to the SEFSC or they can use an on-line, secure data entry application. The data from either reporting option are entered into the quota monitoring database using the same application and are available immediately upon entry for monitoring the status of the quota or quotas.

To track critical species so that the decision makers would know the appropriate time to close a fishery