Comité D'évaluation Des Ressources Transfrontalières Trac Transboundary Resource Assessment Committee Estimating the Magnitude of Unreported Dealer Landings for the Northeast Large Mesh Groundfish Species from 1996 to 2007

The Northeast Fisheries Science Center’s (NEFSC) stock assessments have historically assumed that the landings reported in the dealer weighout database represent a census of total United States (US) landings. In 2009, individual fishermen reviewing the National Marine Fisheries Service’s (NMFS) records of vessel groundfish landing histories reported discrepancies between the NMFS record and their paper records. Noted discrepancies suggested that the dealer weighout database may not represent a census of total US landings. By comparing the landings information from the dealer weighout database to the vessel trip report (VTR) database this analysis has attempted to quantify the relative magnitude of large mesh groundfish species missing from the dealer database on an annual basis between the years 1996 and 2007. The results from this analysis suggest that the magnitude may be on the order of hundreds of metric tons per species annually. The magnitude of these missing landings relative to the total species landings varies by species. For the large volume species (Atlantic cod, haddock, pollock, white hake, yellowtail flounder, winter flounder, American plaice, witch flounder, and Acadian redfish), the average percentage of total landings missing was estimated at less than 5%. For the smaller volume species (windowpane flounder, ocean pout, and Atlantic halibut), the percentage of missing landings varied annually and ranged from 0.7% to 88.6%. In general, the percentage of missing landings has decreased over time. The estimated missing landings likely underestimate the true level of landings missing from the dealer data, but do provide information on the relative magnitude. Introduction The National Marine Fisheries Service’s (NMFS) Northeast Fisheries Science Center’s (NEFSC) stock assessments have historically assumed that the landings reported in the dealer weighout database represent a census of total United States landings. In 2009, leading up to the implementation of sector management for the New England groundfish fishery, the NMFS Northeast Regional Office (NERO) provided sector managers with the landings history for each vessel permit currently on their sector roster. Individual fishermen reviewing NMFS record of permit landings history reported discrepancies between the NMFS record and their personal paper records. The discrepancies reported include landings amounts, missing species landings for particular trips and entire trips missing from the dealer data. At that time, the relative magnitudes these types of discrepancies was unknown. Follow-up communication with individual fishermen suggested that the absence of species records and entire trips from the dealer database are the most serious problems. The assignment of dealer landings to the wrong vessel could cause some of the problems noticed by vessel owners. While this presents a problem for determining landings history for the purposes of sector allocations or quotas, this would not violate the NEFSC’s assumption that the dealer data are a census of total landings. However if these observations by the industry were due to the fact that the landings were never reported by the dealer, this could have serious implications for individual stock assessments.