The Impact of Independence Assumption Violation in Capture Recapture Estimators of Catch from Electronic Reporting Systems

• Activity Number: 41 - Non-Probability Sample and Probability Sample Matters Under What Context?
• Type: Contributed
• Date/Time: Sunday, July 28, 2019 : 2:00 PM to 3:50 PM
• Sponsor: Survey Research Methods Section
• Author(s): Shalima Zalsha* and S. Lynne Stokes and Benjamin M. Williams and Ryan P.A. McShane
• Companies: Southern Methodist University and Southern Methodist University and University of Denver and Southern Methodist University
• Keywords: Capture recapture; Non-probability samples; Fisheries; Electronic reporting; Recreational fisheries; Non-sampling errors

Abstract

The Marine Recreational Information Program (MRIP) is a data collection operation responsible for collecting data on removals by the recreational fishing sector. Data from this operation comes from effort (total trips) survey and intercept survey that measures catch per unit effort (fish caught per trip). However, this current system requires about 45 days after the end of a two-month wave to produce estimates, preventing in-season monitoring of catch. Some state fisheries managers were motivated to experiment with alternative data collection referred as electronic logbook (ELB) to improve timeliness. However, these reports cannot credibly be considered a probability sample of trips since reporters are self-selected. The most common approach to use these voluntary reporting systems is to use the capture-recapture estimators which treat reporting and intercept samples as capture and recapture. These estimators require the independence assumption that probability of capture does not influence the probability of recapture. In this study, we examine the effect of the independence assumption violation in capture recapture estimators of catch from electronic reporting systems.