Chapter 6 Cost Data Visualization Tool

6.1 Product Overview

This tool summarizes the results of the Northeast Fisheries Science Center cost survey at the commercial fishing vessel-level for costs incurred in 2011, 2012, 2015 and 2022.

Unit: Responding vessels
Summary Group(s): Primary Gear Type of responding vessels
Frequency: Annual (Intermittent)
Time Series: (2011, 2012, 2015, 2022

6.1.1 Point of Contact

Samantha Werner (Samantha.Werner@noaa.gov)

6.1.2 Data Outputs/Outlets

Cost data Visualization Tool: https://apps-nefsc.fisheries.noaa.gov/cost-data/about

6.2 List of Metrics

Repair/Maintenance & Upgrade/Improvement
Propulsion Engine
Deck Equipment/Other Machinery
Hull
Fishing Gear
Processing/Refrigeration
Safety Equipment
Wheelhouse Electronics
Haul-out Costs
Vessel Costs
Mooring/Dockage Fees
Permit Fees
Vessel/Permit Payments
Vessel Insurance
Overhead Costs
Professional Fees
Office Expenses
Association Fees
Communications
Business Travel
Advertising
Business Vehicle Usage
Non-Crew Labor
Crew/Hired Captain
Crew Payments
Hired Captain Payments
Crew Benefits
Total Cost

6.3 Metric Descriptions

6.3.2 Major cost categories

Repair/Maintenance & Upgrade/ Improvement - Combined category of the following sub-costs
Propulsion Engine
Deck Equipment/Other Machinery
Hull
Fishing Gear
Processing/Refrigeration*
Safety Equipment
Haul-out Costs Description: For the 2011, 2012, and 2022 surveys, the costs for each of these category components was queried separately. For the 2015 survey, a composite value across all cost components was queried. Additionally, for the 2012 survey, a separate line item for “Other Repair/Maintenance Costs” was queried. These costs were binned into “Other Costs” to maintain consistency in this cost category. In 2022, “new” costs incurred were added to this category. The 2011, 2012, and 2022 surveys were queried only at the vessel-level for repair/maintenance costs, while the 2015 survey queried these costs at the vessel-level and business-level. To be consistent with the previous surveys, only vessel-level costs are summarized.
Vessel Costs - Combined category of the following sub-costs:
Mooring/Dockage Fees
State and Federal Permits and/or License Renewal Fees
Vessel or Permit Payments
Vessel Insurance Premium Description: In 2011, 2012 and 2015, the “Vessel or Permit Payments” variable includes principal paid on business loans and interest paid on business loans while in 2022 it includes amount paid on down payments or loans on vessel/permit purchases (including tax). Overhead costs were calculated at the business-level for 2012 and 2015, but presented here by dividing by the number of vessels owned.
Total Payment to Crew/Hired Captain- Combined category of the following sub-costs:
Crew Payments
Hired Captain Payments
Crew Benefits Description: Vessel payments to crew/hired captain and benefits paid to crew/hired captain were queried during each of the four survey years. Total payments to crew and hired captains were collected separately in 2012, 2015, and 2022 and as a single combined value in 2011. The majority of vessel owners across all years (~90%) indicated they did not provide benefits to crew. Crew payments and benefits were aggregated to form the total payment to crew/hired captain category.
Total Cost - Combined aggregate of all the above cost categories

6.4 Additional Methods/Decision Rules

6.4.1 Summary Group Decision Rules

The primary gear for each vessel is determined by the gear type which yielded the highest revenues from catch sold to a federal dealer in the year in which costs were being investigated. Though each vessel is grouped into a primary gear type, vessel costs are not apportioned to the gear usage, such that the summaries reflect a vessel’s total costs for each year.

6.4.2 Data Quality Control and Outlier Removal

There were multiple areas in which data quality was assessed across all survey years. In a small number of cases, a vessel owner filled out multiple surveys within the same year. For these occurrences, only the first returned survey was retained for data analysis. If a survey respondent provided a cost range to a question as opposed to a single value, the average was taken to serve as the reported value. If a survey respondent skipped a particular question, no data imputation was performed and the value was not assumed to be $0.00 unless $0.00 was written by the participant. For detection of data outliers in 2011, 2012 and 2015, any returned survey that contained values greater than 5 standard deviations from the mean for the repair/maintenance, upgrade/improvement, vessel costs, or overhead cost categories was excluded from the data analysis. The total number of survey responses dropped based on the removal of outliers was 12 responses for 2011, 7 responses for 2012, and 5 responses for 2015. The 2022 survey data went through a more rigorous outlier analysis than in previous years which is documented in the data processing Technical Memoranda (forthcoming), which addressed data outliers and data entry errors.

6.5 Data Sources and Code

6.5.1 Data Sources

Cost data- SSB_COST_SURVEY.VCS_COMMON_VARIABLES_MV
Metadata: https://swerner2.github.io/ORACLE_COST_SURVEY_METADATA/
Number of Crew- Permit
Revenue - CFDERS

6.5.2 Code

Metric Creation Code File Location: Created on production side Read Me file (file to run code): Created on production side Website Production Code Location: https://github.com/NEFSC/READ-SSB-COST-DATA (Permissions Required) Read Me file (file to run code): N/A

SSB Metrics Catalog