Hawaii Marine Recreational Fisheries Survey. How Analysis of Raw Data Can Benefit Regional Fisheries Management and How Catch Estimates are Developed. An Example Using 2003 Data

摘要

This report describes the results of a collaborative effort from 2004 to 2005 between Nicole Bartlett, then a statistician for the Marine Recreational Fisheries Statistics Survey (MRFSS) program staff at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland, and Stewart Allen, social scientist at Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center (PIFSC) in Honolulu. The bulk of the project took place while Bartlett was at PIFSC on a rotational assignment from October 2004 to March 2005. The purpose of this project was to review, evaluate, and communicate the results from an initial year of conducting the MRFSS in Hawaii. The experiences of other states, as well as discussions among Hawaii policy makers and stakeholders, made it clear that accurate, timely data on recreational fishing in Hawaii will be critical. One of the main products of the rotational assignment (in addition to this report) was a workshop held February 9, 2005, at the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council office. The need for the workshop originated during the October 12, 2004 meeting of the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council's Social Science Research Committee. Attendees discussed the increasing importance of scientific information on recreational fishing and its application to state and federal management. However, many present did not have a good understanding of the information collected by the Hawaii Marine Recreational Fishing Survey (HMRFS) and how NOAA Fisheries develops catch estimates using data from the household telephone survey and shoreline and dockside field surveys.