As a result of the Fishery Conservation and Management Act of 1976 and the planning and imposition of Fishery Management Plans in the U.S., the number of requests and demands for historical, current, and new kinds of fishery data has increased dramatically. These demands are often well beyond the ability of present staff to respond, well beyond the limitations of available and anticipated economic resources, and well beyond the limitations of data collection systems presently in use. In such a climate, there is an understandable and reasonable desire to maximize the informational return. However, as noted by Wenk (1972), "the federal role at sea has not been continuous or well planned but has grown in a random succession of separate legislative assignments." For example, the National Marine Fisheries is authorized to collect biological, economic, social, and other data many different statutes (see page. 2). The resulting potential for duplicative effort and inefficiency has been great. In order to fulfill their obligations under such a diversity of authorizations, data collection and management systems often subscribe unnecessarily to a variety of recording, storage, and reporting formats. More importantly, computer technology now makes much of the human time and effort involved in current collection and analysis methodology unnecessary. This report is part of an effort to describe and evaluate the present data collection systems now operating within the SEFC of the NMFS in order 1) to facilitate the flow of information in a more timely and continuous manner, 2) to identify and eliminate unnecessary duplication, 3) to determine those components of the collection and analysis process which may more easily and accurately be accomplished by computers and 4) to recommend for implementation those procedures which seem likely to contribute to a better data collection system.