The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced in June that it will allow groundfishermen to submit vessel trip reports electronically. Previously, the trip reports, or VTRs, could only be submitted to government agencies via fax or mail. Both NOAA officials and Maine groundfishing stakeholders hope the move will streamline the reporting process and save time and money for the flagging groundfish industry.
Under the new rules, groundfishermen who get approval from NOAA to use electronic reporting would be able to use onboard computers to submit their trip reports simultaneously to groundfish sector managers and the government. The VTRs report all aspects of a fishing trip, from what is caught to the amount of fuel used, and provide vital information for Maine groundfishermen who fish their allocations collectively under the recently-launched sector program.
NOAA spokesperson Maggie Mooney-Seuss says that while only a handful of fishermen have inquired about signing up to transmit VTRs electronically, interest in electronic reporting has grown since the switch to sector fishing.
“It’s something the members of the fishing community have been asking for for a long time,” said Mooney-Seus.
NOAA already has been testing the electronic reporting system with a handful of Maine groundfishermen. Ben Martens, Port Clyde sector manager and director of policy for the Midcoast Fishermen’s Association, said two Port Clyde Sector fishermen, Vincent Balzano and Gary Libby, have been filing electronic VTRs.
“We’re very excited to see how it works on the boats,” Martens said.
Martens says that at a time when people can deposit checks using cameras on smart phones, the fishing community needs to have the option to move away from paper reports. As it now stands, the dozen or so fishermen in his sector must send thousands of pages of documents via fax or mail each year. The data must then be manually entered into the computer by NOAA employees. Sometimes, reports get lost in the mail. At other times, incomplete or incorrect reports are sent back by mail and can take weeks to straighten out.
“If you think about it, it’s a horrible system,” Martens said.
Real-time electronic reporting can help sector managers and fishermen manage their allocations more efficiently, which is important in a sector system that requires enhanced coordination among fishermen.
“If we have a guy who is coming close to the amount they can catch, we need to know about every trip,” said Martens.
Vincent Balzano, who fishes out of Portland, has been piloting the new system for the past 15 months. While Balzano does not consider himself a computer whiz, he said the program has been easy to use.
“It took me about fifteen minutes to learn,” said Balzano.
The program can be attached onto some computer programs already used by groundfishermen, but the existing programs must be modified to include elements like encryption to ensure that the data is transmitted securely.
Glen Libby, chairman of the Midcoast Fishermen’s Association, believes that groundfishermen must find innovative ways, like electronic VTRs, to cut costs and fish more efficiently. Not only can electronic reporting save fishermen time, but it can provide month-to-month fishing data that is easy to read and analyze. Any advantage can help, said Libby, whose brother has tested the program.
“I think it seems like maybe it’s going to be the answer, or at least one of the answers,” said Libby. “Because we have to find ways to cut costs.”
While some groundfishermen know their way around computers, others have never used email before, said Martens. He’s hoping that the Midcoast Fishermen’s Association can partner with organizations like the Gulf of Maine Research Institute to train fishermen to be tech-savvy enough to use electronic VTRs.
NOAA will work with any groundfisherman who wants to sign onto the electronic programing system, whether (s)he is enrolled in sectors or not, said Mooney-Seus. The program is voluntary. In the future, she hopes electronic reporting will be available for lobstermen.