SC/OQ Vessel Database

Data tables holding information for the Surf Clam/Ocean Quahog vessel and dealer/processor logbooks (negative and positive), as well as individual tag information and ranges of tag numbers.

To hold data for the commerical harvest, catch, and effort for the Surfclam & Ocean Quahog ITQ fisheries.

Multi-year data sets for 2003 - present.

Fisheries Data Services Division (FDSD)

55 Great Republic Drive

Vessel trip reports are considered to be business confidential and may not be released without signed approval of the permit holder on record for the time period requested.

Access to VTR data is governed by 50CFR600 - Confidentiality of Information. Access by state fishery management agency staff and Fisheries Management Council staff may be allowed through Memorandum of Understanding that are signed by the NE Regional Administrator and Directors of the State Agency or Councils that describe the need and uses of the data and list the individuals who will have access to the data. Contractors may be granted access provided they are working under contract to NOAA or a cooperating partner (state, Council, Commission) on a specific project under the oversight of a partner.

Contact POC to request access.

Access is restricted to personnel authorized in accordance with NOAA Administrative Order 216-100. A signed non-disclosure agreement must be on file for all authorized personnel. The APSD Data Request staff are the POC for non-disclosure forms.

Access to individual reports is restricted to NOAA employees and our partners who have signed non-disclosure agreements. Summary data may be made available based on the "rule of 3", i.e., there must be at least three entities included in a summary for the summary information to be made publically available. Data may be made available if there is no information included that could uniquely link the information to an individual entity (person, vessel operating unit, business, etc.). Individually identifiable information may not be released without written authorization from the provider or by court order.

There are no constraints on the use of the metadata associated with this program.

Relational database.

Vessel logbook data can be considered representative of all self reported vessel data in the NERO.

The Vessel Trip Reports are submitted by vessel operators and thus contain self reported data. The information in these reports is compared against the information in other data systems.

Vessel reported data is routinely audited for completeness. Vessel reports missing obvious data fields are sent back to vessel owners.

GARFO has established an "industry data investigation" (IDI) team whose responsibility is to investigate and correct data errors on GARFO's critical datasets including vessel trip reports, dealer reports, and various associated fishing activity reports, including VMS reports. QC on these datasets is performed regularly since data is securely displayed on various web portals to its owners. JIRA is the tool used for tracking quality control.

Access to this data is tightly controlled. Most access is read-only. Write access is given only after data owners have authorized (accompanied by a signed NDA), and data is usually edited via an access controlled application. Data is QAQC'd on a regular basis by authorized personnel, and backed up both to disk and tape on a daily basis.

Paper logbooks are submitted to staff at GARFO and subsequent data entry is completed with a custom web application. Electronic submissions will soon be allowed.