Highly Migratory Species Tournament Registration

All Atlantic recreational fishing tournaments that award points or prizes for the catch & release or landing of billfish, swordfish, sharks, or tunas are required to register with NOAA Fisheries at least 4 weeks prior to the start of the tournament. To register, the tournament operator/director must complete an Atlantic Highly Migratory Species (HMS) tournament registration form (OMB 0642-0323) and submit it to the HMS Management Division. The form includes tournament name, date(s), location, and HMS for which points or prizes will be awarded, as well as the tournament operator's name, mailing address, phone number, fax number, and e-mail address. The form also gives the operator the option of ordering a specified number of Atlantic HMS recreational regulation booklets and other outreach materials for distribution at the tournament. All of the information is entered into the HMS tournament registration database, which produces a unique confirmation number that is provided to the tournament operator by the HMS Management Division for proof of registration.

The purpose of this data collection is to help meet the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) landings reporting requirements by facilitating selection of tournaments for reporting of fishing effort and landings by the South East Fishery Science Center. These data are also used to quantify the tournaments held for HMS to improve fishery management measure development and by the public to determine applicable regulations for vessels participating in tournaments.

dataset is co-located in the Southeast Regional Office

To access this database, potential users must complete an HQ access agreement form and submit it to the Point of Contact (Margo Schulze-Haugen) for consideration and approval by the Point of Contact (Margo Schulze-Haugen). The access form lists what tables in database are available and if read/write permissions are justified.

This dataset contains data protected under data confidentiality clauses of Magnuson Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act. Restrictions and legal prerequisites exist for accessing the data set, and Includes any access constraints applied to assure privacy or intellectual property and any special restrictions on the use of the data. Access to these data must be approved by the Point of Contact.

Data entry is reviewed by person who entered data prior to submission to database.

NA

Will follow guidance of PARR team.

Data are entered in database. Reviewed for accuracy. Submitted to database and are immediately available for analysis.