NOAA survey letter

[Crow]

I got a letter from NOAA Fisheries Service, asking me to take an online survey, of my last 12 months fishing in Alabama waters......anybody else get one ? Maybe for your "home" waters ?  Anyway.....I've tried to get to the website address they provided...several times...with no luck, at all. Did manage to get to the 'survey page", finally, by going to the NOAA site....and got a message that the survey was "unavailable, at this time". I did email them , hoping for a link that works, but was just wondering if anyone else has ever been contacted by them ?.......Thanks

[fordfox]

I would get written notice every year telling me the date of the call and the specific time frame they would be calling about. It WAS NOT random, and it had to do with the HMS permit I got every year for Shark fishing.

[Crow]

I've tried...multiple times...to access the website they want me to "go to"....and sent multiple emails to their "help center", and, I've decided that, like many other things the government does...or tries to do, this is just another waste of both time, and, money ! I suppose, with "Dorian" raising heck, NOAA has more important things to do than this "survey", but, I would imagine that whichever company they contracted to actually DO the survey (I'm sure they don't actually do it, themselves) isn't tied up by the hurricane.

[Swami805]

I've gotten a few of those but it was several years ago. The survey was a few pages and came with a postage paid envelope. Only took a few minutes and mailed it in. Pretty basic questions about shared what and how often you fish. Haven't seen an online one

[Tightlines667]

I am not sure which of the recreational fishing surveys you have been asked to.participate in?  There are several..


From Florida to Mississippi, MRIP works with its partners to administer the following surveys to collect information about recreational fishing catch and effort:

The Access Point Angler Intercept Survey (APAIS).
The Fishing Effort Survey (FES).
The For-Hire Survey (FHS).
In Florida, Alabama, and Mississippi, three specialized surveys have earned NOAA Fisheries certification: Florida's Gulf Reef Fish Survey (GRFS), which is used to monitor private boat fishing for red snapper and nine other reef fish species, and Alabama's Snapper Check and Mississippi's Tails n' Scales, which are used to monitor charter and private boat fishing for red snapper.

In Louisiana, LA Creel serves as a certified alternative to the APAIS and FES.

From Florida to Texas, the NOAA Southeast Fisheries Science Center administers the Southeast Region Headboat Survey.

In Texas, marine recreational fishing is monitored by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.

In all but two Atlantic states, anglers must report recreationally landed billfish, swordfish, and tuna by submitting a Highly Migratory Species catch report.



You should be able to contact via phone or email the responsable party and either have them direct you to the website to file electronically, or send you a paper survey to mail in. 

We (NOAA) just changed our entire website format this summer and many things are either not functioning or difficult to find.  They are working on updating/correcting things as they can.  This was part of new national security requirements and other federal laws.

Wish I could help more, but I do not work with the rec guys in your region. 


John

[Crow]

"a survey about the economic importance of marine fishing in the United States", "fishing related expenses during the last 12 months, in Alabama".......hopefully, someone will answer my "need help" emails .

[anglingarchitect]

They NOAA is not recreational fishings friend, i wouldn't bother to respond.

mark hartley

[bhale1]

Mark,
AS a recreational fisherman who travels from AZ to San Diego to fish, I have to ask why one would not respond. I have been sent stuff( apparently from my license info) as to how my  trip went. Like how many days did you fish, what did you catch, what did you keep,,,, seems like normal management to me. I mean this in no disrespectful way, but why should I not respond? I consider myself an avid "outdoorsman", and like to fish, hunt elk, and deer here in my home state annually. I always respond to the after hunt questioners , as I assume they will help with better game management. Just curious why I should not answer them.
And like I said, just curious to your reasons.
Brett

[oc1]

It is in the best interest of the recreational fishing community to return the form.  Inflate the expenses, inflate the number of people involved, and low-ball the number/kind of fish caught.  It increases recreational fisherman clout in negotiations.
-steve

[Tightlines667]

It is in the best interest of the recreational fishing community to return the form.  Inflate the expenses, inflate the number of people involved, and low-ball the number/kind of fish caught.  It increases recreational fisherman clout in negotiations.
-steve

Yes and for other reasons, but it depends.  Use and availability of Rec catch data varies by region, fishery, and stock.  More data is always good, and I would assert the more accurate data is best.  Much of the rec data is being used to feed into stock assesments now which will generally show healthier stocks if more catch is occuring.  They may take awhile to produce and typically lag behind the effort data, which examines exploitation/pressures on stocks.  Also, the third tier... economic data is always valuable and shows the significant (no ex vessel fish price driven) positive economic impact recreation fisherman have on the economy, as well as enumerating the costs incurred by fisherman in pursuit of fish.

With the advent and integration of more overall, and more timely data, greater accesability, and applicability of rec data due in part to the development of better electronic reporting, archieving, analysis, and accessability of data, it is becoming a more important/reliable data source.  There have also been great strides made in some specific regions (west coast comes to mind) or specific fisheries, or states that are doing a much better job of integrating state and federal data sources for use by various agencies, academia, NGOs, and others.

Still, survey response rates are abysmal (in the neighborhood of 9-18%), which in fact make for a great statistically significant tag recapture rate for insyance.  The way I see if, you can chose to be part of the group that contributes, or 80-90% that don't.  This may be similar to how most people chose not to vote, but most have opinions on the canidates when queried.  

The NMFS is a federal agency tasked with managing fisheries and fish stocks at the federal level.  As such they will continue to relay on the best sources of information to provide needed assesments and carry out federally mandated actions. Commercial fisheries tend to have greater overall landings, and provide more data so they tend to have a larger proportionate impact on the assesments.  Also, federally established regulatory and management processes and frameworks will focus more effort on fish stocks and fisheries proportionate with federal mandates (MSA, ESA, NEPA) through the existing commision and FMP ammendment process.  Some of this is driven in part by data availability, some by direction (from politics/economics/ leadership), and some by need.  

I belive that increased data quanity/quality/timeliness can only help fish and fisherman (both recreational and commercial), but if you belive otherwise, you can often chose not to participate. Though sometimes (fishing license or legally-binding/enforcable reporting requirements) as a law-aboding citizen, you don't have a choice in the matter.  

I would encourage anyone who is interested in recreation fishing data to take a through look through the NMFS, and state websites, or read some of the many research papers that have been published using recreation fishing data or research cooperation.


BTW, My professional career (over the past 19 years) has been focused on the collection, analysis and distribution of better quality fisheries data, but I am first and formost an avid angler for over 40 years.

John

[Donnyboat]

I would not give to much detail online, it may be a hoax, careful, cheers Don.

[Crow]

    I really do want to participate in the survey....and really hope they respond to my queries, so I can. I can only imagine that information about "how much $" is coming in to the local economies from fishing related stuff can only help. Giving tackle shops, bait stores, boat rentals, etc., a better "voice" in policy making decisions , and letting the "governmental check writers" a better understanding of how important the recreational sportsman is to the local economy, can only help...at least as far as I can see.
   As Don noted...and is even mentioned in the NOAA letter I received ....there is the possibility that some "sensitive" info may be asked for..and shared. But, I'd like to think I'm smart enough to not tell anybody the "card number" of the credit card I used to buy shrimp with ! And if the information of just "how big" the total of my fishing expenses ever got back to my wife , THAT could be bad . But, seriously, I can't think of anything , much, that would be likely to be on the survey, that could really pose any kind of threat

[JoseCuervo]

They NOAA is not recreational fishings friend, i wouldn't bother to respond.

mark hartley

Though they do coordinate rescue if you are in distress at sea (locator beacon authority).

[Crow]

   Finally got to the "correct" webpage to do the survey.........mostly questions about how much $ I spent,last year , on tackle,  bait, boat rental, etc......and how much of that (by %) was spent in Alabama. I DID make sure my wife wasn't looking over my shoulder, when I answered the questions

[Tightlines667]

   Finally got to the "correct" webpage to do the survey.........mostly questions about how much $ I spent,last year , on tackle,  bait, boat rental, etc......and how much of that (by %) was spent in Alabama. I DID make sure my wife wasn't looking over my shoulder, when I answered the questions

Lol

Glad to hear you got it figured out. 

Providing actual data on the money spent by recreational fisherman is an important indicator as to the huge economic impact that we have on the economy.