Pelagic Longline Observer Program

This data set contains data that are collected by trained observers aboard pelagic longline vessels in the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico. The fishery observers are deployed to collect catch and effort data and record information on the types and numbers of fish that are discarded and interactions with marine mammals or endangered species.

Vessels that have Federal permits to fish for swordfish are required to take a fishery observer onboard for the duration of a trip if the vessel is selected. The data that are submitted to the mandatory pelagic longline logbook program are used as the population from which the vessels are randomly selected. A 5 to 8 percent sample of vessels is selected to carry an observer for at least one trip during a calendar quarter.

The primary purposes of the observer program is to collect detailed data on the catches and associated effort for trips made by pelagic longline vessels that fish for swordfish in the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico. A secondary purpose is to collected objective data on the species and amounts of fish that are discarded during the trip.

Contact Data steward

Read and sign for NOAA Administrative Order 216-100

Read and sign System Access Application (see URLs)

Contact DBA Daniel Leon at:daniel.leon@noaa.gov for userid/password.

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.

Please cite data.

Please be cognizant of meta data

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Data In Oracle Tables

POPOL data are likely representative of the fleet?s catch and effort characteristics, although some ?observer effect? (vessels altering fishing practices when an observer is on board) is possible. Vessels are randomly selected and come from the full range of temporal and spatial strata that the fleet operates in, in the full range of vessel sizes. Observer coverage in years prior to 2007 was approximately 4-5%; from 2007 onward observer coverage rates are above 8% annually. There are no known quantitative analyses of the representativeness of this data set.

Nothing is known about the degree of agreement between individual measurements in the POPOL data set and the true measurements, as the observer colleting the data is the sole source of the information and it cannot be cross checked with alternate sources.

The accuracy of analytical results to the ?true? values cannot be determined as the true values cannot be calculated without 100 % observer coverage and multiple observers on each vessel. Neither situation has ever occurred during collection of POPOL data.

The POPOL data system is a relatively complex collection system devised to collect a large amount of variables for use in many different types of analyses rather than a single purpose system designed to estimate or produce one set of values. Further, the quantitative limits for many values would be dependent on the frequency of the observations, which is highly species dependent

There have been no quantitative studies to detect potential bias in POPOL

There are few comparable data sets to POPOL; where they exist no quantitative analyses have been done to compare the sets.

All vessel hauls are planned to be observed during an observer deployment. Prior to 2006, data on the number unobserved hauls occurring was not collected; however since that time the number of unobserved hauls is less than 1% of the planned total hauls. Data on the number of values that are not collected during individual deployments are not systematically kept.

There have been no quantitative studies to determine the precision of observations in POPOL. Since the ?instrument? used to quantify the variable is generally the human observer themselves, measures of precision would require the same observer to record a variable, of known property, multiple times under the exact same conditions. Such studies are not practical

No information Available

No information available

Since the ?instrument? used to quantify the variables is generally the human observer themselves, sensitivity largely relies on the ability of the individual observer to see small variations in conditions, morphology, lengths, etc. No analyses of this characteristic have been conducted for this data collection system specifically or for fisheries observation systems in general.

Not applicable. Variables collected in the POPOL system where specifically chosen such that they could be consistently and reliably determined by the human observer themselves.

Information on the types of data, specific variables, and coverage rates can be found at http://www.sefsc.noaa.gov/fisheries/observers/research.htm