All commercial fishing trips observed by the National Marine Fisheries Service, Northeast Fisheries Science Center, Fisheries Sampling Branch are required to submit preliminary trip and incidental take information within 24 hours of the end of the trip.  Additionally, trips participating in Special Access Programs must submit catch summaries for quota monitored species.  These requirements were established to provide NOAA Fisheries managers and analysts with quick access to key data fields.  Observers would call in the preliminary data to their area coordinator, who would call in the data to the Woods Hole lab where it would be keyed into the Observer Contract (OBSCON) database.

A data entry program has been developed for the HP iPAQ, using the Mobile 5.0 operating system, to automate the previous call-in procedures.  The HP iPAQ, a Personal Digital Assistant, was selected because of size, cost and internet capability.  The program utilizes screens tailored for each fishery with appropriate audit checks and data file output.   Observers upload data directly into Oracle tables using a secure website.  This approach has been successful in providing cleaner data in real time.