Table 1.

Purpose of key provisions mandated within the NOAA Fisheries Seafood Import Monitoring Program (SIMP) based on Final Rule released on December 9th, 2016

Provision	Purpose and/or specifics
Seafood data are collected through U.S. International Trade Data System (ITDS)	Directs all reporting to a single data portal; the portal is maintained by U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
Importer reports and retains seafood chain-of-custody records from harvest to point of entry into U.S. commerce	Chain-of-custody data follow the seafood products, thus providing record of origin, species, and harvest method, and to verify seafood product was lawfully harvested or produced
Regulations applies to 13 priority seafood species	This initial phase of SIMP focuses on 13 types of seafood identified to be particularly vulnerable to IUU fishing and/or seafood fraud
Recordkeeping documents may be reported in any language	Allows broad reporting of information, with importer of record responsible for reviewing and verifying accuracy of data regardless of language
Requires reporting of harvester or producer information	Record includes name and flag state of harvesting vessel, unique vessel identifier, fishing permit or license number, type of fishing gear, and name of farm or aquaculture facility (when applicable)
Requires reporting of fish information	Record includes species name (ASFIS three alpha code), landing date(s), point of first landing, form of fish at landing (e.g., quantity and weight), location of wild-capture or aquaculture harvest, and name of entity to which fish was landed or transferred to
Requires reporting of importer of record	Record includes importer’s name, affiliation, contact information, and NOAA Fisheries-issued international fisheries trade permit (IFTP) number
Requires importer retain detailed product information	Detailed product information includes all chain-of-custody data, information on any transshipments, processing, re-processing, and/or commingling of product
Reporting is exempt for individual small-scale vessels	Importer is exempt from reporting individual seafood harvests by small-scale vessels (12 meters or less in length, or 20 gross ton or less), so long as importer provides aggregated harvest data for all small vessels from a single collection point or landed by a vessel which received transshipments from small-scale vessels at sea
Reporting requirements apply to all seafood that transfers through a foreign country	Existing regulations already apply to domestically caught and landed fish; however, all SIMP reporting requirements do apply to U.S. domestically captured fish that are subsequently sent abroad for processing, re-processing, and/or storage
Provides assistance for compliance	Assistance to exporting nations and domestic importers to support compliance will be offered, pending available resources. Priorities for building compliance capacity are outlined in the NOAA Strategic Action Plan for Building International Capacity to Strengthen Fisheries Management and Combat IUU Fishing