GLOUCESTER, Mass. – March 11, 2011 – NOAA Fisheries Northeast Regional Office has re-launched the Sector ACE Transfer Summary website. A similar website was available briefly last year, then taken down by NOAA Fisheries citing privacy concerns.
The new website, unlike the original, does not provide financial information related to the exchanges, because, NOAA General Council deemed that information is confidential. In other instances, NOAA will release financial data in the aggregate, to protect confidential business information. NOAA also pointed out to Saving Seafood that "sectors are not required to pay for transfers in monetary terms, they can also trade fish, permits, inkind etc. that is entirely up to them." However, whether transactions are paid for with money or barter, without being able to examine that the transaction costs, it is impossible to determine the degree to which the cost of trading is diminishing the significance of overall increases in gross revenue.
According to a release from NOAA Fisheries:
It is now possible to view electronically groundfish sector-specific trade information, including the sector transferring its allocation (annual catch entitlement -ACE), the sector receiving the allocation, the live pounds of each stock transferred, the date the transfer was initiated and the date the transfer was completed.
This webpage also includes directions on how to interpret and customize data presented and some background on sector trading and why sectors do it.
The page is dynamic, in that data are updated constantly. As trades are made and approved by NOAA, the table is automatically updated to reflect new information.
To view the webpage please visit the Northeast Regional Office website.