AFSC/FMA/Observer Declare and Deploy System (ODDS)

Groundfish vessels fishing in federal waters off Alaska are either in the "full coverage", "partial coverage", or "zero coverage" categories according to the monitoring specifications outlined each year in the Annual Deployment Plan. Vessels in the Partial Coverage (PC) category are subject to random selection for observer coverage or electronic monitoring on a trip-by-trip basis. PC vessels are typically catcher vessels using longline, pot, or trawl gear and are required to log each trip into the Observer Declare and Deploy System (ODDS) prior to departure to determine if the trip is "selected" for observer coverage or electronic monitoring. If a trip is selected vessels must comply with all monitoring requirements on that trip. Broadly speaking, the Observer Declare and Deploy System is the data system that houses all trip logging data and the associated monitoring rates, and provides a user interface for vessel owners to log trips and for the contracted observer provider(s) to assign observers to selected trips.

Regulations governing how observers are deployed into the fisheries of Alaska became effective on 1 January 2013. Amendment 86 to the Fisheries Management Plan (FMP) of the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands and Amendment 76 to the FMP of the Gulf of Alaska establish the new North Pacific Groundfish and Halibut Observer Program (Observer Program). The AFSC produces - with guidance from the North Pacific Fisheries Manamgent Council and its associated committees - an Annual Deployment Plan (ADP) each year that determines monitoring rates in each sector for the year. The ODDS is used by vessel owners to log trips which are randomly selected for observer or electronic monitoring coverage. Observer provider comany(s) then use ODDS to assign observers to selected trips. Data from ODDS logged trips are analyzed to compare predicted vs actual monitoring rates and for compliance monitoring.

Modeled in Oracle Designer

Confidential under Magnusson Stevens.

Made available to OLE, NMFS Staff with valid confidentiality agreements

Made available to OLE, NMFS Staff with valid confidentiality agreements, requests must be made through Ren Narita.

Confidential data may not be published in raw form

Confidential data may only be used for approved research.

None

None

Oracle 11g database, APEX GUI

Trip log data is entered by authorized fishers with a user account and password.

The trip logging is validated against delivery reports

Unknown

100%

Daily review by inseason staff.

N/A

The dataset is never final and subject to ongoing review, archiving of completed data not possible.

RAID 1 Drives, Tape backup, Complete data histories maintained

Trips are logged by authorized fishers. A random number is generated which is compared to the desired coverage rate and applied to determine observer coverage