AFSC/REFM: Digitized 2005 GOA Trawl Logbooks merged with Fish Ticket and Observer data

The data include a full year of logbook forms for vessels 60-124 feet in length (the partial coverage fleet) that had participated in the trawl flatfish fishery of 2005 in the Gulf of Alaska. The digitized hauls were not restricted exclusively to the population of trips to the Gulf of Alaska (GOA), since some vessels also participated in BSAI trawl fisheries. A total of 55 unique vessels daily fishing logbooks (9 catcher-processors and 46 catcher vessels) were digitized into the Vessel Log System database. The daily production section for catcher-processors was not digitized, therefore they were excluded from the data entry procedure and we focus on the remaining catcher vessels. These logbook records are then combined with observer and fish ticket data for the same vessels to create a more complete accounting of each vessels activity in 2005. In order to examine the utility, uniqueness, and the congruence of data contained in the logbooks with other sources, we collated vessel records from logbook data with Alaska Commercial Fisheries Entry Commission (CFEC) fish tickets (retrieved from the Alaska Fisheries Information Network (AKFIN)) and the North Pacific Groundfish Observer Program observer records. Merging of datasets was a multiple-step process. The first merge of data was between the quality-controlled observer and fish ticket data. Prior to 2007, the observer program did not track trip-level information such as the date of departure and return to/from port, or landing date. Consequently, to combine the 2005 haul-level observer data with the trip-level data from the fish tickets for a given vessel, each observer haul was merged with a fish ticket record if the haul retrieval date from the observer data was contained within in the modified start and end date derived from the fish ticket data (see above). Since the starting date on the fish ticket record represents the date fishing began, rather than the date a vessel left port, all observer haul records should be within the time frame of the fish ticket start and end dates. The observer hauls were therefore given the same trip number as determined by the fish tickets trip numbering algorithm. The same process was then repeated to merge each logbook haul onto the combined fish ticket and observer data. Trip targets were then assigned from the North Pacific Fishery Management Council comprehensive observer database (Council.Comprehensive_obs) for observed trips, and statistical areas denoted on the fish tickets were mapped to Fishery Management Plan (FMP) areas. After quality control, the dataset was considered complete, and is referred to as the combined dataset.

[
  "https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/inportserve/waf/noaa/nmfs/afsc/dmp/pdf/22163.pdf"
]