ODFW News: Salt Angler Survey

[Pete]

For Immediate Release Wednesday, November 5, 2003

ODFW asks for information from anglers

NEWPORT - To improve knowledge of saltwater sport fishing effort and harvest levels, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife is asking anglers to cooperate with a telephone survey.

Selected anglers will be asked the number of days they went saltwater sport fishing in Oregon during the previous two months, and a few questions about each of those fishing days.

"We know that most people don't like to be disturbed with surveys, especially over the telephone, so we are keeping the survey as short as possible," said Linda ZumBrunnen of ODFW.

During the first period of calls, conducted in early September, the survey averaged two minutes for people who had done no saltwater fishing and eight minutes for people who had.

Phone calls will be made during a three-week period every two months. Names are selected randomly from a database of all fishing license holders. The sampling goal for each calling period ranges between 400 and 800 complete interviews, or about 1 or 2 percent of license holders.

"We urge anglers to cooperate with the survey so that their activities are reflected accurately in the results," ZumBrunnen said.

Questions or comments about the survey can be directed to Linda ZumBrunnen in Newport at (541) 867-0300 Ext. 260 or linda.zumbrunnen@oregonstate.edu.

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Information and Education Division
Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife
(503) 947-6002

Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife
Contact: Anne Pressentin Young, (503) 947-6020
Internet: www.dfw.state.or.us Fax (503) 947-6009

[ 11-05-2003, 08:35 AM: Message edited by: Pete ]

[OceanBlue]

Hey Pete, seems to me that they'd have better luck getting the info they want if they created a web survey. Randomly calling folks just because they have a fishing license and asking them about salt-water fishing seems like they'll have a lot of misses.

[corrirod]

Pete, I agree with Jen.

It would be easier to setup, cost less time and money, and the survey participants would all be 100% Saltwater enthusiasts vs. weeding thru many anglers who may not fish the saltwater.

You could make sure they were valid participants simply by requiring their license numbers.

Just my opinion.

[Phil Layer]

There is a whole field of science dedicated to validating the accuracy of surveys. By creating a website for this survey, you are not going to get results from people who don't surf the net. That probably translates into some relationship to incomes and possibly racial or social issues. Are these statistically significant? I don't know but a specialist in this science could tell you.

Of course, I would MUCH rather fill out a form on the internet rather than take a call at dinner time.

[Chum King]

FYI – Since there are some questions coming up about the purpose of the phone survey, let me try to clarify what is going on. This “new” survey is a revision of the prior Marine Recreational Finfish Statistical Survey (MRFSS) which used a random phone call system of all home phones within what were called the "coastal counties" (generally the coast to the Cascades) to estimate marine fishing activity along the coast for both shore based and boat based anglers. The new phone survey calls only Oregon licensed anglers to reduce the number of calls to non-anglers and the associated expenses, and should improve the accuracy of the survey as well. The phone survey data is paired up with interviews conducted by the Shore and Estuary Boat (SEB) sampling project to make estimates of ocean shore and estuary based angling effort and catch.

Ocean recreational boat effort and catch is estimated by a different survey that utilizes bar crossing counts and dockside interviews.

Hope that helps. If you need more information, please contact Linda Zumbrunnen who coordinates that project. Her e-mail is listed in the news release.

[ 11-05-2003, 04:54 PM: Message edited by: Chum King ]

[Pete]

As Phil and Chum suggested, this survey is designed to be an accurate reflection of all marine fishers. The science of statistical sampling permits interviewing a smaller number of people and getting results that very closely reflect the responses of the entire group. Interviewing a smaller number of people saves money. Conducting the survey by random phone calls of a certain number of people (usually about 500) permits results that will be at least a 95% accurate reflection of the responses of the general population of saltwater fishers.

By doing a web page, they would only get results from people with computers and of those, only the people willing to respond. The survey is intended to represent everyone, not just the willing computer owners.

[ 11-05-2003, 05:52 PM: Message edited by: Pete ]

[edsr]

Hey Pete - What they said - It makes sense to establish a website where people can respond 24/7. I bet that the survey would be much more comprehensive.

edsr

[OceanBlue]

I forwarded the thread to Don Bodenmiller at the Marine Resources program, hoping to accomplish 2 things... 1) understand what the (real) objectives of the survey are and 2) to make the suggestion that they offer an online survey. If they're spending the $$ to call people on the phone at dinner time and hoping to get a 50% completion rate, somehow, I don't think it's gonna net the results needed.