Allocation Management System

Several fishery management plans (FMP) in the Northeast region are managed under a days-at-sea regulatory structure. This form of fisheries management regulates catch by limiting the number of days that permitted fishing vessels are allowed to fish and the amount of fish vessels can bring in per day. Variations to this method include allocating special access area trips based on permit categories.

Other northeast region FMPs are being managed with individual fishing quotas (IFQ), a form of catch share management.

All these different management schemes have a common attribute for the different types of fishing industry participants - an allocation of some type, whether days, trips, or pounds. These entities are allocated annually to a given fisherman.

Additionally, some of these entities can be traded and leased. This could happen within a fishing year, and the allocation recipient can use the acquired allocation only within that year. At year?s end, the allocation automatically returns to its originator, and trading or leasing can occur again at the start of the next fishing year. Or trading can happen permanently. Under that circumstance, and entity is traded once, and the trade is considered permanent.

The purpose of the allocation management system is to provide a framework where allocations for these different FMPs (and their associated authorizations and vessels) are stored and monitored. It can be viewed as an allocation banking system where fishing trips are the entities that are accounted against the allocations. System functionality includes fishing trip data collection, trip/allocation accounting, allocation trading and leasing, trip matching with dealer data (for IFQ managed FMPs), and a variety of internal and external tools which provide information on trips and allocations.

Information Resource Management Division

All fishing industry related data managed by IRM is considered to be business confidential and may not be released without written consent of the data originator.

Access to 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 Greater Atlantic 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.

Access to 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 Greater Atlantic 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.

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 IRM help desk or APSD Data Request staff are the POC for non-disclosure forms.

Relational database and associated front end software.