AFSC/FMA/Observer Declare and Deploy System (ODDS)

Groundfish vessels fishing in federal waters off Alaska are either in the "full coverage", "partial coverage", or "zero coverage" categories according to the monitoring specifications outlined each year in the Annual Deployment Plan. Vessels in the Partial Coverage (PC) category are subject to random selection for observer coverage or electronic monitoring on a trip-by-trip basis. PC vessels are typically catcher vessels using longline, pot, or trawl gear and are required to log each trip into the Observer Declare and Deploy System (ODDS) prior to departure to determine if the trip is "selected" for observer coverage or electronic monitoring. If a trip is selected vessels must comply with all monitoring requirements on that trip. Broadly speaking, the Observer Declare and Deploy System is the data system that houses all trip logging data and the associated monitoring rates, and provides a user interface for vessel owners to log trips and for the contracted observer provider(s) to assign observers to selected trips.