American Samoa Longline Fishery Logbook Summary Reports

About The Reports

These summary reports are derived from daily records in the mandatory logbooks submitted to NMFS by captains of American Samoa based longline vessels after each fishing trip. At the end of every quarter, all available logbook data from longline fishing operations during the quarter are analyzed and an official report of preliminary non-confidential summary statistics on nominal effort, fish catch, and catch per unit of fishing effort (CPUE) is issued. The quarterly report includes a brief narrative and a basic set of tables and charts. The official report is distributed in PDF format.

At the end of the 4th quarter of each calendar year, preliminary, non-confidential summary statistics of the year's fishing effort, fish catch, and CPUE are computed and an annual report is issued along with the 4th quarter report. Tables of the annual statistics are prepared along with charts showing yearly statistics from 1996 through the current year.

The longline catch summaries are prepared for tunas, billfishes, and other fishes identified by the Western Pacific Fishery Management Council as Pelagic Management Unit Species (PMUS). All non-confidential summary statistics of catch and fishing effort are based on activities of three or more vessels. Before the logbook data are summarized, they are subjected to extensive validation checks and known errors are corrected to ensure accuracy.