Fisheries Information System Program
The Fisheries Information System program is a state-regional-federal partnership supporting sound, science-based fisheries management. We do so by fostering collaboration and funding innovative projects to improve the quality of fisheries-dependent data.
Bristol Bay Tender Vessel
Cross-Disciplinary Collaboration
An integral part of FIS is our Professional Specialty Groups—cross-disciplinary teams that focus on specific fishery-dependent data challenges. These groups foster communications across regions to develop innovative solutions, reduce duplication of efforts, and enhance efficiency. Currently, our four PSGs are addressing issues related to Pacific highly migratory species, software coding, design, and development, quality management and continuous improvement, and east coast data integration.
Addressing Pressing Challenges
Data is NOAA Fisheries' most valuable asset. Yet the systems that support the collection, use, and management of these data are complex, encompassing a wide array of both new and legacy systems. Among them are web applications, desktop applications, mobile applications, databases, and sometimes ad hoc and innovative solutions in the field, all serving a diverse group of users with varying requirements. The 2023 FIS Legacy Data Systems Workshop was the first step in developing a systematic approach to modernization that includes legacy data system displacement. FIS continues to focus on modernization efforts that also address legacy systems and technical debt.
Funding Innovative Projects
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Our annual competitive request for proposals process supports initiatives that improve the quality and effectiveness of collecting, reporting, and managing fisheries-dependent data. Through coordinated funding of regional priorities, FIS promotes the sharing of intellectual and financial resources, while helping to reduce redundancy. Since 2013, we have supported more than 260 projects across all regions in the areas of:
- Electronic reporting development and implementation
- Electronic monitoring development and implementation
- Data improvements, modernization, and integration
- Fisheries Information Network development
- Quality management and continuous improvement
Our annual Stakeholder Report outlines our priorities and accomplishments for the year. Our regional fact sheets detail specific activities—and their impacts—taking place in Alaska, the Greater Atlantic, the Pacific Islands, the Southeast, and on the West Coast.
FIS projects are funded in partnership with the National Observer Program's Electronic Technologies program and the National Catch Share Program. Our request for proposal guidance document provides detailed information about the proposal submission and selection process, and our NOAA Library seminar presentation includes tips for preparing a strong proposal.
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Supporting the Project Life Cycle
FIS funding and engagement yield positive impacts throughout each step in the project life cycle—beginning with evaluation, then moving through research and development, testing, pre-implementation, implementation, and back to re-evaluation—driving successful outcomes.
Meeting Regional Priorities
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FIS priorities are set by a Program Management Team whose members represent a broad cross-section of state, regional, and federal partners. This shared governance structure ensures FIS is meeting inherently regional fisheries-dependent data needs while sharing best practices and lessons learned across geographic boundaries and professional disciplines.
FIS Case Studies
Collaborating with Industry on Greater Atlantic Electronic Reporting
The Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries Office is now virtually paperless when it comes to reporting and permitting. Getting there took a lot of work—and collaboration—by NOAA, partners, and fishers. GARFO built its own mobile submission application, Fish Online, and published technical specifications online for others to develop applications. NOAA Fisheries staff, particularly port agents, convened dozens of webinars with FishOnline training and SAFIS eTrips/mobile training by staff at the Atlantic Coastal Cooperative Statistics Program. The electronic vessel trip reports have improved reporting timeliness and reduced reporting errors.
Improving Fisheries and Ecosystem Data Collection in the Caribbean through Partnership, Collaboration, and 117 Ideas
The Caribbean Fishery Management Council has more species under its management than any other council in the nation. However, the fishery and ecosystem data collection to support the assessment, monitoring, and management of these stocks comes from disparate sources that are often siloed from one another. This creates substantial challenges that require collaboration, coordination, and integrated funding considerations. To help overcome these challenges, NOAA Fisheries’ Southeast Fisheries Science Center hosted a strategic planning workshop with representatives from 13 regional partners focused on strategy and innovation to improve fisheries management in the region.
New Electronic Trip Ticket Reporting Applications Support Sound Science and Benefit Fishers
Trip ticket reporting has been mandated by the state of Florida for commercial fishers since 1984. For nearly two decades, most dealers recorded and submitted data to state and federal fisheries management agencies through paper reports. Then, in 2003, Florida introduced software to enable electronic reporting via desktop computer. Today, a new web-based application, VESL, allows operators to use a mobile device or tablet. They can scan a barcode that captures a fisher’s commercial license and vessel identification numbers, and it auto-generates fields to fill in additional information required for post-trip reporting.
Pathway to Paperless Data Collection
Historically, observers have collected data on paper forms for manual processing, but many programs are moving the entire data collection process to a paperless system. This improves cost and timing efficiencies while reducing potential errors in the data itself. Our Northwest Fisheries Science Center has put a new paperless system to the test, and the lessons learned can inform other projects across the country.
New Horizons in the Alaska Fisheries Data Environment
Efforts to better understand the link between environmental factors and bycatch in Alaska have led to several data integration collaborations between the Alaska Fisheries Science Center and the Alaska Fisheries Information Network. Among other benefits, these initiatives are allowing scientists to spend less time on managing data and more time on analysis. In turn, this focus supports research and management, including streamlined stock assessments.
Expanding Electronic Reporting Across the Pacific Ocean
Previously, when observers in the West Coast deep-set buoy gear fishery gathered data aboard fishing vessels, they wrote everything down on paper forms and then entered it into a computer when they returned to land. But through the Onboard Record Collection Application project, or ORCA, the West Coast Region Observer Program, observers are now able to input data directly into a rugged, waterproof Android tablet at sea. For its next stage, ORCA 2, the program is expanding to pelagic longline fisheries, thanks to a collaboration between the WCROP, the Pacific Islands Regional Observer Program, the Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission, and private contractors.
New System Interface Paves the Way for Paperless Reporting
NOAA’s Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries Office is now a no-paper zone when it comes to trip reports and permits—a move made possible through a cloud-based back-end system that has the promise of simplifying the process for going electronic across NOAA Fisheries. Created by in-house developers at GARFO, the Electronic Document Data Interface enables all data submitted from any online form—through virtually any app—to be seamlessly processed, integrated, and entered into the GARFO database, enhancing speed and accuracy and reducing costs.