Pilot Surveys of Shore Fishing on Oahu, Hawaii

• Activity Number: 492
• Type: Contributed
• Date/Time: Wednesday, August 3, 2016 : 8:30 AM to 10:20 AM
• Sponsor: Survey Research Methods Section
• Author(s): Hongguang Ma* and Tom Ogawa and Jay Breidt and Virginia Lesser and Jean Opsomer and Tom Sminkey and Christopher Hawkins and April Bagwill and David Van Voorhees
• Companies: Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center and Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources and Colorado State University and Oregon State University and and NOAA Fisheries and Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council and NOAA Fisheries/ECS Federal and NOAA Fisheries
• Keywords: Hawaii Marine Recreational Fishing Survey ; roving creel survey ; aerial fishing survey ; shore fishing gear ; fishing effort ; recreational fish catch

Abstract

In response to recommendations from a recent review of the Hawaii Marine Recreational Fishing Survey (HMRFS), we designed a roving effort and catch survey for shore fishing. The on-the-ground roving effort survey was complemented by an aerial survey and a mail-in survey to cover private and remote shoreline areas and night fishing activities. The roving survey was stratified by region (rural or urban), shift (three 4-hour periods during the day), and day type (weekday or weekend). Each region included three non-overlapping coastal segments (sample units). All of these surveys were field tested in January-April 2015. Results from the pilot mail survey indicate that night fishing accounted for more than one third of the total trips for rod and reel (the major gear type). Over 20% of night fishing was reported in private and restricted areas. Results from the aerial survey indicate that up to 20% of all anglers counted in daylight hours were from remote areas.Thus the effort and catch estimates from the ground-based roving survey need to be appropriately adjusted for under coverage in time (night fishing) and space (remote and private/restricted areas).