Contact: Gordon Helm FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
8/27/97The National Marine Fisheries Service will be seeking help from anglers as officials gather data in 1998 on West Coast recreational fishing activities. The Commerce Department's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says the fisheries service will use the data to better predict future recreational fishery needs.
Approximately 26,000 West Coast anglers from California, Oregon and Washington will be interviewed as they return from fishing trips. Data collected from this survey will be used to provide baseline socio-economic and demographic information on West Coast anglers, to estimate statistical models of the demand for marine recreational fishing for major West coast fisheries, and to provide a basis for predicting the effects of regulatory changes on anglers' behavior and the change in economic value as a result of those changes. Collected data will also help officials predict the effect of regulatory changes on sport fishing.
At a recent planning meeting to discuss implementation of this survey, representatives from the fisheries service's Southwest regional, Northwest regional, and headquarters offices met with staff from the Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission, the Pacific Fisheries Marine Council, California Department of Fish and Wildlife, and researchers at the University of California-Davis to identify key issues facing West coast recreational fisheries. Comments derived from these groups led to the formulation of the proposed survey.
Collection and analyses of this data support the fisheries service's goal to collect information on the value of all of the nation's recreational fisheries. In conjunction with the American Sportfishing Association, the fisheries service conducted similar studies of recreational anglers in the northeastern United States in 1994, and is surveying Southeast and Gulf of Mexico anglers throughout 1997. The planned collection effort on the West Coast in 1998 completes the first round of comprehensive data collection around the United States, and will help improve fisheries service economists' understanding of this important sector.
Contact Cindy Thomson (Southwest Fisheries Science Center, 408-459-3068) for further information about the survey.