August 18, 2023 — Evan Howell, director of the Office of Science and Technology for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries, facilitated an online public meeting on Monday, Aug. 7, during which he presented key findings of a pilot study conducted to evaluate potential sources of bias in NOAA Fisheries’ recreational Fishing Effort Survey questionnaire design.
“Switching the sequence of questions resulted in fewer reporting errors and recreational angler effort estimates that were 30% to 40% lower than estimates produced from the current NOAA survey design,” Howell said. “Results varied by state and fishing mode.”
The Fishing Effort Survey is a household mail survey administered from Maine to Mississippi and in Hawaii by a NOAA Fisheries’ contractor. It collects private recreational fishing trip information for each resident of a responding household.
The results of NOAA’s reassessment of how they estimate recreational effort could affect recreational harvest limits, possibly increasing some. How much of an increase would vary by region and species.