This is the fifth year of the project to transfer commercial license holders who fish within the jurisdiction of the potomac river fisheries commission (prfc) from paper reporting to report trip-level…

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) awarded the Potomac River Fisheries Commission (PRFC) $349,865 under the Atlantic Coastal Fisheries Cooperative Management Act (CFDA 11.474) for the period February 1, 2026 through January 31, 2027. This fifth-year project grant funds the continued modernization of commercial fisheries data reporting infrastructure within PRFC's Potomac River jurisdiction. The primary deliverable is the transition of commercial license holders from paper-based reporting to electronic trip-level catch and effort data collection using the Atlantic Coastal Cooperative Statistics Program (ACCSP) eTrips tools and technology platform.

In addition to expanding eTrips adoption among commercial shellfish and finfish permit holders, PRFC will develop and implement a functional interface connection between PRFC's licensing system (SAIL—Sport & Commercial Application Integrated Licensing Tool) and ACCSP's data management platform (SAFIS) to enable automated official data transmission between the two systems. These modernization efforts enhance data quality, standardization, and accessibility for interstate fisheries conservation and management purposes, supporting NOAA's stock-assessment objectives and benefiting the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, Atlantic coastal states, and the National Marine Fisheries Service.

This is the fifth year of the project to transfer commercial license holders who fish within the jurisdiction of the potomac river fisheries commission (prfc) from paper reporting to report trip-level catch and effort data using the accsp etrips tools. Prfc has collected catch and effort data from commercial shellfish and finfish permit holders for over 60 years, with storage of the data in electronic databases since the late 1980S.this project works to increase the use of census-style reporting by expanding the use of accsp etrips technology and also creating an interface connection between prfc sail (sport & commercial application integrated licensing tool) and accsp safis for official transmission of data between the two systems.