Shortages in official catch histories are showing up in reconciliations of about 10 percent of the commercial federal permit holders, according to Vito Giacalone, the region’s statistical and sector guru. The National Marine Fisheries Service has acknowledged problems with their calculations, but says it will not attempt to make corrections in time to affect the relative catch share grants to fishermen for the 2010 fishing season.
The National Marine Fisheries Service, which calculated and distributed and 10 year catch histories (1996-2006) to fishermen — to help them evaluate options for determining individual catch shares — recognizes the somewhat common existence of errors in their data.
"We are continuing to audit our data and encouraging vessel owners to let us know if they see any potential errors," said NMFS spokeswoman Maggie Mooney-Seus. "We will investigate any errors and, where appropriate, make corrections."
However, Mooney-Seus said the complexity of making corrections bars rectifying catch histories for 2010, which is the inaugural year of the sector/catch share program. Beginning next year, the sectors will operate under a catch share system.
Imprecise data collection and processing has also been cited repeatedly by fishing interests and lawyers as a root cause of misguided prosecutions of fishermen by the law enforcement arm of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.