Longline Logbooks
In January 1996, in response to the developing longline fishery, a federal longline logbook system was implemented by NMFS. All longline fishermen are required to obtain a federal permit which requires them to submit logs containing detailed data on each of their sets and the resulting catch. Books of numbered Longline Logbook Forms are issued by DMWR to all permitted longline vessels.
From 1996 to 1999, the logbooks submitted by the local longliners were edited by the NMFS fisheries monitoring agent in Samoa for any missing data and were then sent to the NMFS Honolulu Lab for further editing, data entry and data processing. These log forms were of the previous version containing the following information;
Set Date · Vessel Name and Permit Number · Target Species · Bait Used · Mainline Length · No. of Hooks · No. of Hooks/Float · No. of Lightsticks Used · Wind Speed · Wind Direction · Wave Height · Sea Surface Temperature · Begin Set Time · Begin Set Latitude and Longitude · End Set Time · End Set Latitude and Longitude · Haul Date · Begin Haul Time · Begin Haul Latitude and Longitude · End Haul Time · End Haul Latitude and Longitude · No. of Pelagic Species kept · No. of Pelagic Species released · No. of Sharks kept · No. of Sharks finned · No. of Sharks released · No. of Protected Species released alive · No. of Protected Species released injured · No. of Protected Species released dead
In July 1999 DMWR implemented a Daily Effort Concensus (DEC) for all federally permitted longline vessels to improve the monitoring of the fast-growing longline fishery, Six days a week DMWR staff make two visits a day to ports where longline vessels are based. The staff document on Longline Daily Effort Census Forms whether each vessel on the form is "in port" or "out fishing" for each day. The DEC data are then compared with the logs recieved from each vessel to track the activity of each vessel and to help ensure all fishing logsheets are submitted by the vessels in a timely manner.
The logbook data are also compared with the cannery unloading data for the Samoa based boats on a monthly basis to identify boats that unload at the canneries and yet don't turn in any longline logs or turn in just a part of the logs that they are required to.
Beginning in January 2000, logbook data collecting, data entry and processing is all done by DMWR in Samoa to further improve the quality and timeliness of the data. The Longline Logbook Forms were also changed at this time to their current version with environmental data such as Wind Speed, Wind Direction, Wave Height and Sea Surface Temperature deleted and Date of Departure, Port of Departure, Date of Arrival, Port of Arrival, Number of Hooks Lost, Observer on Board and Bird Catch Mitigation Measures data added to them.
The longline logbooks provide no information on the pounds caught or the disposition of fish caught by the large longliners not covered by the Offshore Creel Survey. Beginning in April 2001 length data from South Pacific Regional Longline Port Sampling Forms was collected for the Samoa based longliners and converted to pounds to provide better estimates of the pounds per fish of fish caught by the large longliners. Disposition data was also entered in the comments section of these forms to provide sampled disposition data on the fish caught bu the large longliners