This survey collected information to assess the economic value from an anglers perspective of saltwater charter and private boat fishing for selected species in south Atlantic states and to evaluate the economic effect of proposed management alternatives on these anglers. Respondents were anglers who were intercepted (by MRIP) and volunteered to receive a mail survey in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and the east coast of Florida. Questions related to the respondents past experiences with saltwater fishing as well as questions concerning the opinions and attitudes of the respondent about saltwater fishing were asked. A stated preference choice experiment allows for the calculation of willingness to pay related to four important species.

The core function of the Resource Assessment and Conservation Engineering (RACE) Division is to conduct quantitative fishery surveys and related ecological and oceanographic research to measure and describe the distribution and abundance of commercially important fish and crab stocks in the eastern Bering Sea, Aleutian Islands, and Gulf of Alaska. This includes measuring the abundance of fish (including rockfishes) in rocky untrawlable areas. To accomplish this, we are mapping untrawlable areas using an ME70 multibeam data. These data area stored as image files ArcGIS shapefiles

Commercially available regional economic data for Alaska fisheries [such as IMpact analysis for PLANning (IMPLAN)] are unreliable. Therefore, these data need to be either collected or estimated based on more reliable information. These data have been collected or estimated for important economic variables such as cost, employment, and factor income (labor income and capital) for Alaska fisheries. The data thus collected or estimated have been used to develop regional economic models for Alaska fisheries in order to estimate the economic impacts of Alaska fisheries.

This chapter examines the methodological challenges associated with collecting economic data from the for-hire fishing sector. A cost and earnings survey of charter boat operators in the Southeast United States serves as a case study. In the case study, a telephone survey was used to collect information about individual trips and a mail survey was used to collect complementary data about annual expenses. The results of the case study are used in the discussion of economic data requirements and survey methodology most applicable to the charter boat industry. Recommendations are provided for improving the design of surveys to collect economic data from the for-hire sector.

The project consisted of a nearshore fish, invertebrate, and habitat survey in northern Bristol Bay, Alaska. A 32-ft. gillnet vessel, the F/V Willow was chartered for the survey, and we also used a 20-ft. aluminum skiff with 90-hp. motor for shallow water work. The survey was staged out of Dillingham, Alaska and took place from July 26-August 8, 2009.The main gear types used during the survey were a beach seine and a bottom beam trawl. A surface pair trawl (towed by the vessel and the skiff) was deployed in one location. Using these gear types, we sampled from the shoreline to 17 m depth, as well as surface waters ~1 km from the shoreline. Catches were sorted to species, enumerated, and when possible weighed using spring scales. Length measurements were taken for most species. Voucher specimens were preserved in 10% formalin for confirmation of species identification. A small number of samples were frozen for age and energetics analysis . Photographs were taken of most species. Small, datalogging conductivity-temperature-depth recorders (CTDs) were deployed on the trawl gear, and also placed on temporary moorings in several locations to study fluctuations in temperature and salinity over tidal cycles. We also recorded habitat variables at beach seine sites according to the methodology used in the Nearshore Fish Atlas of Alaska. During July 26-August 1, 2009 sampling was conducted in Nushagak Bay. High wind and waves hampered the sampling throughout this entire week and largely determined possible sampling locations. Two days were completely lost due to weather. On August 3 we traveled from Dillingham to the west side of the Nushagak and from August 4-8 sampling was conducted along the Nushagak Peninsula and in Kulukak, Nunavachak, Ungalikthluk, and Togiak Bays. During most of this time we experienced high winds but they did not hamper the sampling to the same degree as in the Nushagak. On August 8 we traveled back to Dillingham.

A series of expenditure surveys have been done both regionally and nationally. This data pertains to the Northeast U.S. states that was collected in 1998. Expenditures on trips by mode (for-hire, private boat, and shore) were collected for both residents and non-residents of each state, and annual expenditures on durable goods were collected by resident status. Expenditures were collected both as an add-on to the intercept, and a followup phone survey with those who completed the intercept and a separate random sample of households.

To collect data on an angler's last trip for revealed preference models and economic valuation purposes. Typically done as an add-on to the MRIP intercept survey and done as needed, periodically

The project will produce a valuation function that depends on factors related to Steller sea lion (SSL) protection measures, and may include some combination of the expected aggregate size of the population and improvements to the ESA listing status resulting from protection measures, cost of the protection measures, and effects of protection measures on local economies, fishery participants, and consumer fish prices. This function can be used to identify non-consumptive use values for SSLs and how these values are affected by protection measures, thereby providing valuable information to policy makers.

The GOA/AI Bottom Trawl Estimate database contains abundance estimates for the Alaska Biennial Bottom Trawl Surveys conducted in the Gulf of Alaska and the Aleutian Islands in alternate years. The estimates build upon raw and summary data available from the RACEBASE database and include calculated catch-per-unit-effort (cpue)s for principal species of groundfish and key invertebrates for each survey region. The cpues are averaged by survey strata, and then average cpues are multiplied by stratum areas which results in estimates of biomass and numerical abundance. Length and age data are combined with abundance to estimate the population at length and sex and population at age and sex.

These data represent a cost-earnings study of the main Hawaiian Island Charter fishing fleet in 2012. Data collected include fisher classification, vessel characteristics, levels of investment, trip-level expenditures, fishing behavior, market participation, social aspects of the fishery, and demographics.