II. THE CURRENT INFORMATION BASE 

 A. National Marine Fisheries Service, Washington, D.C. 



The two divisions of the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) 

 primarily responsible for the collection of economic data are the Economics 

 and Marketing Research Division and the Statistics and Market News Division. 

 These two divisions differ in terms of functions. The Statistics and Market 

 News Division (SNMD) is specifically charged with the collection of data and 

 preparing periodic statistical reports, of which the principal series are 

 discussed later. 



The Economics and Marketing Research Division (EMRD) is, as its name 

 implies, oriented toward economic research and analyses which may be based 

 in part or in total on the data base available from the SNMD. In addition, 

 the EMRD collects data of its own as needs may dictate. Various publica- 

 tions of the EMRD may reflect either or both data bases. For the purposes 

 of this report the functional distinction between these two divisions can 

 therefore be ignored and a common data base assumed. A recent decision to 

 phase out the EMRD is worth noting at this juncture. In view of the new 

 economic information requirements under the Act, this decision raises ques- 

 tions about the sources of data and analyses to meet these requirements. 



The NMFS collects, either directly or from state agencies, data on the 

 landings by species, value, area of capture, depth, fishing effort and days 

 absent from port for each vessel trip in the New England offshore fisheries. 

 These data are stored on computer tape and are available at the Northeast 

 Fisheries Center, Woods Hole, Mass., and at the Washington, D.C, office of 

 the SMND. This data series is used to compile the Maine, Massachusetts and 

 Rhode Island Bulletins (see below). Similar data are collected on the Gulf 



