Guys I wrote an email to the RFA about the quota's on our fishery.. I was hoping to clear something up with all the hype over the regs.. For me its always been were the hell does the data come from?? Here a response..
Thanks for the email. I’ve always been confused by this so-called “best available science” where surveyors are expected to document each and every fish caught by the recreational community. I’m 41, and like you I’ve never been asked about my fishing, not on the docks nor by phone.
The data collection is done in two different ways, each one a random collection method. The two forms of data collection make up the Marine Recreational Fishing Statistical Surveys or MRFSS for short.
First off, surveyors walk the docks, piers, jetties, bridges, beaches (etc.) during different intervals during the season, checking what anglers are actually catching. These random “dockside intercepts” collect individual catch data like species id, total number of species, along with length and weight measurements of the catch. The sampling schedule for these random field surveys is determined by fishing mode (shore, private or charter) and target sample sizes are based on available funding. These surveys provide the “catch data” for the MRFSS survey, that being what’s actually caught.
In terms of the participation, or the actual number of people fishing, random telephone surveys are also coordinated. The Coastal Household Telephone Surveys (CHTS) limit their scope to the coastal communities; that is, if you have people visiting for the day from inland or upstate (out of state) areas, they won’t be called. To minimize the amount of effort that must be done and the vast amount of telephone calls that would have to be made, these “phone surveyors” only call residents within a coastal community. It might take several calls to find someone who actually fishes, and when the surveyor gets that type of person on the phone, they then ask “if that person fished recently, how often, and when.”
The results of both of these surveys ends up making up the statistical analysis of (A) who and how many people fished, and (B) what they caught. This inexact science is then used to determine just how many fish were caught during the fishing season.
I hear what you’re saying about the commercial guys; but keep in mind, the big problem that’s affecting our recreational fishermen today is the bad science coming from the terrible data collection. We need to be careful about pointing fingers at any one group, particularly commercial fishermen in general, being as how their regular catch of legal summer flounder as an example is strictly monitored and tallied at the dock. Commercial anglers don’t live and die by this ridiculous “survey system” that arbitrarily spits out fishing information at random, and the groups trying to stop people from fishing are not differentiating between US or THEM!
I won’t go saying the commercial guys aren’t impacting our coastal fish stocks – but those guys have as much interest in us getting better data as anyone. And if these radical preservationists get their way, the commercial guys won’t be fishing, but neither will us recreational guys.
