Participants in the U.S. west coast groundfish trawl fishery are required to maintain logbook records that provide a detailed set of species, catch, and effort data with broad temporal and spatial coverage. We used a geographic information system to compare catch data collected from the Oregon commercial trawl fishery with data from U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service research cruises conducted at the same time in the same area. We compared catch locations, catch rates, and biomass estimates for five species, for 1980-1989. Patterns of distribution and relative abundance derived from logbook data closely resembled those from National Marine Fisheries Service triennial trawl research data. Summer season density estimates from logbook data displayed narrower 95% confidence intervals than estimates derived from an entire year, suggesting that sampling in summer months maximizes the statistical reliability of research results. Graphical and statistical analyses indicated that information derived from logbooks can augment research data and improve estimates of the distribution and relative abundance of commercial fish species.
