Why is it Important to Record Trip Ticket Data Correctly?

Data from the NC Trip Ticket program are used to help describe and document trends that occur in the commercial fishing industry. This information is used in stock assessments, fisheries management plans, and adaptive management strategies. Accurately reporting each transaction is the responsibility of both fishermen and dealers.

Common Reporting Issues	Why is it Important?
Gear Codes Accurate gear codes help biologists assess what equipment is being used in each fishery. Gear codes are available on the Trip Ticket webpage.	If the incorrect gear code is recorded, it could inadvertently imply that fishing is occurring illegally. For instance, if an area or time period is closed to anchored gill net gears, but those are the gear codes recorded, it will appear that the commercial fisherman or operation is operating illegally.
Waterbody Codes Accurate water body codes are critical to assessing fishing effort by location. Primary and secondary water body codes are available on the Trip Ticket webpage.	If the incorrect waterbody code is recorded, it will imply that fishing effort might be overestimated in some areas and underestimated in others. This could result in management measures directed at an area that is inappropriate. Also, this could inadvertently make it appear that fishermen might be fishing in closed areas when they are not.
Fisherman and Vessel Identification Fishing License numbers (such as Standard Commercial Fishing License or Retired Standard Commercial Fishing License numbers) are unique identifiers used to record landings for each fisherman. License and vessel information can change each license year, so dealers need to check the accuracy of their records each year after July 1.	Incorrect fisherman and vessel identification can cause under or overestimation of participants and vessels in a fishery. Having incorrect fisherman and vessel identification can be problematic when the data are analyzed for economic assistance programs (such as the Hurricane Florence or CARES economic assistance programs).
Transaction Numbers Used to record when a fisherman sells the catch from one trip to multiple dealers or when multiple fishermen split the landings from one trip.	If this field is not used correctly, it will appear that more trips are occurring in the fishery than what occurred. It will appear that the resource is experiencing a larger amount of effort than what is occurring.
Closing Out Dealers can notify DMF ahead of time if they do not plan to write any tickets during a particular month. Paper dealers can close out by circling inactive months on their green submittal form. Electronic dealers can submit negative reports up to 3 months in advance.	Without a negative report it cannot be assumed that a dealer did not do business for a particular month. Tickets could get lost, forgotten to be sent, technical issues might arise with electronic submissions, etc. If it was assumed as a negative report, it would result in underestimation of landings and effort. Zeroes are still data.
Lease Numbers Recording the correct lease number is important to ensure shellfish production is tracked correctly.	Only one lease number can be recorded on a paper trip ticket. If harvest is from a water column lease, then that is the only lease number needed. If you are a paper dealer and you are recording landings from two different leases from the same trip (and this is not a water column lease with the corresponding bottom lease) then two trip tickets should be filled out, one for each lease. One of the trip tickets should have a transaction number recorded as a “2” to indicate that the trip was split and will not be double counted.

For more information on how your commercial data contributes to managing North Carolina’s fisheries resources, visit our website: Fisheries Statistics and Fisheries Management Plans

Off