Accumulative Landings System (ALS)

This data set contains year, month, state and county where landed, reporting dealer, gear used, area of catch, species landed with summary pounds and value for all ex-vessel seafood products that are landed in the SE Region of the US mainland and sold to established licensed seafood dealers and brokers.

Currently, the landings are typically reported by the dealers on electronic 'trip tickets' to their State agency and from there to the regional commission databases. The data are then loaded to the ALS at the NOAA - Southeast Fisheries Science Center (SEFSC). (Data from the US Caribbean are reported by fishers and are listed separately under catalog item 20884).

These data, also referred to as the general canvass landings statistics, have been collected by the NOAA-National Marine Fisheries Service and its predecessor agency, the Bureau of Commercial Fisheries. They are available on computer since the mid 1920's. The quantities and values that are reported in this data set include monthly landings that were initiated in 1972. Between 1926 and 1971, data were collected annually and not monthly. Mixed annual and monthly data occur from 1972-1976 according to State and year.

The general canvass landings include quantities and value for all commercially caught marine species and are identified by species or species group. These data are collected from or reported by every seafood dealer or broker that is licensed by each state in the Southeast Region (North Carolina through Texas). In addition, information on the gear and area of capture is available for most of the landings statistics in the data set except for Florida 1977-1996 and Louisiana 1992-1999. However, because these data are summaries, while they identify the dealer, do not contain information on the quantities of fishing effort or identifications of the fishermen or vessels that caught the fish or shellfish.

In early years, these data were collected by field agents employed by the Southeast Fisheries Science Center and assigned to local fishing ports. These individuals would canvass the seafood dealers and record the quantity and value for each species or species category from the sales receipts maintained by the seafood dealers. Based on their detailed knowledge of the fishing activity in the area, the agents would estimate the type of fishing gear and area where the fishing was likely to have occurred. It should be noted that landings by gear and water body (fishing area) does not reside in the monthly landings data set for Florida for the years, 1977-1995, Louisiana 1990-1999, and Texas (for gear) from 1993 to present (this is subject to change for years 2008 and more recent). Annual landings by gear, water body and distance from shore are available in the Annual General Canvass data for Florida. More detailed information on the caveats associated with these data is provided in the Issues section.

In more recent years, the states in the Southeast Region began to implement trip ticket programs that required the licensed seafood dealer/brokers to report the landings of all seafood products. A trip ticket program was initiated in Florida in 1985, in North Carolina in 1994, in Louisiana in 1999, in Alabama in 2000, and in Texas in 2007. In addition to the quantities of these landings, the states require dealers to report the price, the type of gear and the fishing area for each trip. Through cooperative agreements with each of the states, monthly summaries of the states trip ticket programs are provided to the Southeast Fisheries Science Center (SEFSC) and are included in the general canvass landings data set.

In addition, summarized data are extracted from the NOAA-SEFSC Gulf Shrimp System for commercial landings of shrimp species that are landed at port in the coastal area of the Gulf of Mexico.

One of the original purposes for these data was to provide estimates of the quantities and value of the marine commercial fishing industries throughout the United States as part of the gross national product for the nation. As the fishing industry continued to grow, the importance of this time series became obvious as a method to monitor the trends in commercial fishing activity. Although the initial methods of collecting the general canvass statistics have been replaced with the states trip ticket programs, monthly summaries from the states programs are provided to the Southeast Fisheries Science Center in order to maintain the time series established by the general canvass data set.

In addition to trends in landings statistics, the general canvass landings data provide comprehensive statistics for the total quantities of marine resources that are caught and brought ashore (landed) for all species in the Southeast Region.

These are fishery dependent data collected by states as reported by industry.

75 Virginia Beach Drive

Miami, FL 33149

User ID/Password restricted. Rule of 3: Data summaries must include at least 3 entities to be considered non-confidential. See:

NOAA FORM 58-5 (1-84) TRANSMITTAL 127,

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

NOAA Administrative Order 216-100

NOAA ADMINISTRATIVE ORDER SERIES

Date of Issuance: July 26, 1994

User ID/Password restricted. Confidential data may only be released to entities having a signed non-disclosure agreement on file with the Director of the Information Resources Management Division (IRMD). Otherwise, confidentiality may be suppressed by the following methods used for aggregation of confidential data:

Data that are submitted as confidential can be released to the public under the following circumstances:

1. Combined or aggregated data. Confidential data can be released if the data are aggregated or summarized in a manner that prevents the identification of the person or organization that submitted the data. The "rule of three" and identification of majority allocations" are the primary data suppression methods.

2. Obscure (scramble) or remove the data identifier. For some types of data, confidential data Can be released as non-confidential if the identity of the person, vessel, company, etc. that submitted the data is not included or is scrambled as part of the data that are released.

3. Submitter. Confidential data collected under federal authority Can be released to the original entity (person, vessel, business, etc.) that sUbmitted the data.

4. Confidential data waived. The protection of confidential data can be waived by the person or business that submitted the data.

See NOAA Administrative Order 216-100

NOAA ADMINISTRATIVE ORDER SERIES

Date of Issuance: July 26, 1994

These standards and procedures apply to all employees of the SEFSC that need access to confidential fisheries statistics. This includes full time or term employees, contractors, volunteers, and/or other employees associated with the SEFSC, but not directly employed by either organization. Any SEFSC employee that needs or desires access to confidential data must have read NOA 216-100 and submitted a signed nondisclosure statement to the Director, Information Resources Management Division (IRMD). The non-disclosure statement must be approved by the Director of IRMD and maintained on file by IRMD. It is the responsibility of the Director of IRMD to certifY upon request, that a person or organization that requests access to confidential data is authorized access to those data. All employees that have access to and/or use confidential data (federal and nonfederal) are responsible to protect those data from unauthorized access or release. Contractors or grantees that have an agreement with NMFS can be granted

access to confidential data as an authorized user (See NOA 216-100 1 Section 6.03e). It should be clearly understood that confidential data cannot be released simply by an individual signing a nondisclosure statement. There must be a clear and demonstrable need for the confidential data that are requested as part of a contract or grant. Confidential data can only be released for the specific contract or grant. Upon completion of the contract or grant, the recipient must either return the data or state that it has been destroyed. The contractor or grantee cannot use the data for any purpose other than the uses stated in the agreement. The Contracting Officers Technical Representative (COTR) or the Technical Monitor (TM) that has been assigned to the contract or grant, respectively, has the following? responsibilities:

1. The COTR/TM has the responsibility to determine whether the contractor/grantee is eligible to receive the confidential data that are requested in the agreement.

2. The COTR/TM has the responsibility to assure that all persons included in the agreement have read NOA 2l6-l00 and have signed a nondisclosure statement. A statement must be signed by each person that will have access to the confidential data under the agreement, i.e., a blanket statement cannot be used for the company or firm. The COTR/TM also has the responsibility to make sure that the Director, IRMD has signed and approved the nondisclosure statement and the statement is on file with IRMD.

3. The COTR/TM has the responsibility to assure that confidential data are not released in any publication, report, oral presentation, or other means to the public by the contractor or grantee.

To access confidential data a completed non-disclosure agreement must be on file with NOAA-SEFSC. Otherwise Data that are submitted as confidential can be released to the public under the following circumstances:

1. Combined or aggregated data. Confidential data can be released if the data are aggregated or summarized in a manner that prevents the identification of the person or organization that submitted the data. The "rule of three" and identification of majority allocations" are the primary data suppression methods.

2. Obscure (scramble) or remove the data identifier. For some types of data, confidential data Can be released as non-confidential if the identity of the person, vessel, company, etc. that submitted the data is not included or is scrambled as part of the data that are released.

3. Submitter. Confidential data collected under federal authority Can be released to the original entity (person, vessel, business, etc.) that sUbmitted the data.

4. Confidential data waived. The protection of confidential data can be waived by the person or business that submitted the data.

Confidential data are not to be released in any publication, report, oral presentation, or other means to the public.

Non-published Metadata access is restricted. Published Metadata is available to the public.

Only published metadata are to be used.

Oracle Database.

Data provided by industry - seafood dealers - Canvass of landings of all species in SE US and US Caribbean, State or Federally Managed . These are raw data. Data quality parameters vary by individual species and are determined during Stock Assessment. They may be found in the Stock Assessment Reports.