Offshore Creel Survey
Introduction
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| DMWR Employee Interviewing a Fisherman (Click on Picture for a slide show) |
On April 2, 2000, the DFW fishery staff reinitiated an Offshore Creel survey system on the island's boat-based fishery following a three year hiatus. The fishery survey monitors the island's boating activities, includes recreational and subsistance fishermen and interviews returning fishermen at the three most active launching ramps/docks on the island, Smiling Cove, Sugar Dock, and Fishing Base. Essential fishery information is collected and processed from both recreational and commercial vessels and will be vital in the management process of one of the island's valuable natural resources.
Participation
Initially there were 6 randomly selected samples days per month with Smiling Cove, Sugar Dock, and Fishing Base each being sampled on one weekday per month and one weekend/holiday per month. In 2003 the the number of sample days has been expanded to 8-10 per month with Smiling Cove, Sugar Dock, and Fishing Base being sampled on more than one weekday and one weekend/holiday per month. All of these surveys are done between 1130 and 1930 hrs.
Participation data from Smiling Cove, Sugar Dock, and Fishing Base is entered on an Offshore Survey Boat Log Form before being entered into the computer. The partcipation data includes the interviewer's name, the sample date and the type of day it is, the start and end time of the interviewer's shift, and from which of the three ports the data is being collected. For each boat logged, its depart time, return time, registration number and/or name, whether or not it is fishing, whether or not it is a charter boat and the type of activity or fishing method is recorded.
On each sample day a boat/trailer census is done using an Offshore Boat/Trailer Survey Form. All public boat launching areas and accessible launching sites listed on the form are surveyed by counting the number of vehicles with empty boat trailers attached and the number of berthed boats that are not at their berths and an estimation is made as to which of these boats are out fishing and which are charter boats. A percentage of boats operating out of Smiling Cove, Sugar Dock, and Fishing Base versus boats operating out of the other areas is computed. This percentage is used to expand the participation counts in Smiling Cove, Sugar Dock, and Fishing Base Agat Boat Basin, to account for island wide activity.
Also on each sample day a survey of known charter boats is done using the Charter Boat Activity Form to indicate which charter boats are out fishing in the morning and/or in the afternoon.
The Fishing Base, Smiliing Cove Marina, Sugar Dock and Tanapag Beach boat lauching area survey maps help the data collectors identify which berthed boats are not at their pier and hence out fishing.
Interviews
DFW conducts its Offshore Creel Survey interviews at the Smiling Cove, Sugar Dock, and Fishing Base boat launch areas at the same time that it is doing participation counts as described above
Originally when the Offshore Creel Survey was first started in the late 1980's until 1992, interviews on Offshore Creel Census Interview Forms included the interviewer's name and number, the interview date and whether its was a weekday or weekend\holiday, the registration number of the boat, the boat ramp where the interview was done, the quadrant and site where most of the fishing was done, the start fishing time, the actual fishing time, the time of the interview, the fishing method, the number of fishermen, the ethnicity of the fishermen, the number of gear, the type of bait used, the weather, the cloud cover, the size and the percentage of the catch kept or sold.
For each of up to eight species the length or weight of up to four samples can be entered and the weight of remaining fish of that species can be calculated from the average actual weight or the average calculated weight from the length of these four samples.
The total number of species, number of fish and weights are summarized on the form with actual weights being measured weights, calculated weights being those calculated from length data and the estimated weights being those obtained by applying average weights to the non sampled fish.
When the Offshore Creel Census Form was first revised in the mid 1990's, information about fishing at FADs (Fish Aggregating Devices) was added, weather was specified to mean wind speed, the times were changed to launch time and landing time, and only four species were allowed with up to 10 samples each.
When the Offshore Creel Census Form was revised again in the late 1990's before 1997, the only time recorded was the interview time and the ethnicity of the fishermen, the bait used, the swell size and the cloud cover data were dropped. The towing vehicle's license number, whether or not it was a charter boat and the number of guests, and complete FAD information was added. The number of gear, hours fished, area fished, percent sold and percent kept could be entered for multiple fishing methods. The species and number released alive or dead for all bycatch could be entered. Up to two sample values for up to 19 species could now be entered with the actual, calculated and estimated values calculated for each of the 19 species.
The current version of the Offshore Creel Census Form used after April 2000 is almost the same as the one used up to 1997. It allows opportunistic interviews on non sample days. It allows only two bycatch species instead of four, it identifies boats as berthed, it adds data on the number of guests and the number of people on board and allows the percent sold for each fishing method to be broken down into percent sold dockside and percent sold in the store.