1. (1) Any person who is the holder of a commercial whelk license issued pursuant to section 13-0330 of the Environmental Conservation Law shall complete and submit an accurate fishing vessel trip report for each commercial fishing trip, detailing all fishing activities and all species landed, on a form prescribed by the department. The license holder shall submit such fishing reports monthly to the department within 15 days after the end of each month or at a frequency specified by the department in writing. Fishing vessel trip reports shall be completed, signed, and submitted to the department for each month; if no fishing trips were made during a month, a report must be submitted for that month stating no trips were made. Incomplete fishing vessel trip reports or unsigned reports will not satisfy these reporting requirements. Any New York license holder who is also the holder of a Federal fishing permit issued by NOAA Fisheries Service must instead meet the reporting requirements specified by NOAA Fisheries Service. If requested in writing by the department, New York license holders who also hold Federal fishing permits shall submit to the department the State (blue) copy of the fishing vessel trip report (NOAA Form No. 88-30) for the month or months identified in the written notification.
2. (2) The fishing vessel trip report must be completed with all required information, except for information not yet ascertainable, and signed before the vessel arrives at the dock or lands the catch. Information that may be considered unascertainable before arriving at the dock or landing includes dealer name, dealer number, and date sold.
3. (b) License holders subject to the provisions of this subdivision shall present their fishing vessel trip reports and make them available for inspection upon the request of an authorized agent of the department or NOAA Fisheries Service. Reports shall be submitted to the department at the following address: NYSDEC Marine Resources, 205 N. Belle Mead Road, Suite # 1, East Setauket, New York 11733. Reports may be mailed, faxed, emailed or submitted by any other method approved by the department.
4. (c) In fulfillment of these reporting requirements, license holders subject to the provisions of this subdivision may choose to submit fishing trip data online at the Atlantic Coastal Cooperative Statistics Program website, www.accsp.org. Complete and accurate fishing trip submissions to this website will satisfy the reporting requirements specified in this subdivision. License holders who submit fishing data electronically must maintain a dated logbook, on board the specific fishing vessel, that details all fishing activities for each fishing trip. Data to be recorded in this logbook must include the vessel name, date sailed and date landed, species and weight of the species taken during the dated trip, and other information required by the department. Entries must be entered into the logbook before the vessel arrives at the dock or lands the catch.

5. (d) Failure to file fishing vessel trip reports as required may disqualify the owner or operator from receiving future licenses or permits pursuant to Part 175 of this Title. Any person who falsifies any fishing vessel trip report shall be subject to the penalties established pursuant to the provisions of article 71 of Environmental Conservation Law and may be subject to permit revocation pursuant to Part 175 of this Chapter.

   (e) Confidentiality of fisheries data.

   Fisheries data, statistics or other information collected from individual permit or license holders by the department or available to the department from other states or the Federal government shall be confidential and shall not be disclosed except to an authorized user or when required under court order; provided, however, that the department may release or make public any statistics in an aggregate or summary form (with no less than three submitters contributing to that statistic) which does not directly or indirectly disclose the identity of any person who submits such statistics. For the purposes of these regulations an authorized user is any person that is employed by or under contract to the department or who is employed by or is under contract to the NOAA Fisheries Service, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council, the New England Fishery Management Council, the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council, or the states of Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia or Florida, and who has been designated by such agency or state, under the auspices of the Atlantic Coastal Cooperative Statistics Program to require confidential data as a means to fulfill their job and their job is related to fisheries management and conservation.

(a) Commercial whelk license holders.