American Fisheries Act (AFA) Permit Program

Beginning January 1, 2000, all vessels and processors wishing to participate in the non-CDQ Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands (BSAI) pollock fishery are required to have valid American Fisheries Act (AFA) permits on board the vessel or at the processing plant. AFA permits are required even for vessels and processors specifically named in the AFA, and are required in addition to any other Federal or State permits. AFA permits also may limit the take of non-pollock groundfish, crab, and prohibited species as governed by AFA "sideboard" provisions.

Manage and issue permits for vessels applying for fisheries American Fisheries Act (AFA) participation

NMFS- Fisheries Information Management Committee (FIMC) Standard

Access to sensitive data shall only be granted to an individual that meets certain criteria. Access may be granted to the data submitter. Access can only be granted to a non-submitter if a signed and effective Confidentiality Agreement, Data Access Sharing Agreement, Memorandum of Understanding, Standard Statement of Nondisclosure, or similar agreement is in place. These signed agreements shall indicate that individuals have reviewed and understand the provisions in the manual governing the legal use of sensitive data. The signed agreements are maintained by the Alaska Regional Records office. The name of each individual that has signed a statement of nondisclosure for using sensitive data will be added to the Alaska Region list of authorized confidential data users.

Data may be released if aggregated in accordance with AKRO and/or MSA confidentiality protocols. Data may be released if confidential BII or PII information are re-dacted.

Data are sensitive under the Privacy Act, FOIA and Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Reauthorization Act (2007) and can only be shared with authorized persons or in summary format for public dissemination.

Submitted data is reviewed by NMFS staff prior to data entry. Source data are validated against business rules when loaded into NMFS' Oracle database. Data input is reviewed against output on a routine basis to ensure quality.

Data may need to be aggregated for confidentiality before dissemination. If data does not need to be aggregated dissemination may be made daily.

IT Security and Contingency Plan for the system establishes procedures and applies to the functions, operations, and resources necessary to recover and restore data as hosted in the Alaska Region in Juneau, Alaska, following a disruption.

Information is collected from participants on paper applications or, if allowed, through on-line data submissions in NMFS/AKR eFISH on-line services. Harvest data necessary for real-time account management may also be submitted through eLandings.

Information submitted on paper forms is entered/updated through NMFS/AKR Alaska Data Entry and Retrieval System (ALDERS) by permitting staff. Data entered into ALDERS is stored in appropriate database tables for use in generating permits, reports, views, etc.