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Fishery Bulletin 88(4), 1990 



While nearshore fishing, light spinning, and bait cast 

 tackle were utilized with natural or artificial baits, 

 offshore fishing tackle generally consisted of heavy 

 boat rods with level wind reels using at least 30-lb test 

 line. 



Catch data from various capture methods are usual- 

 ly not distributed normally due to the large number of 

 zero values. Therefore, CPUE was transformed by 

 ln(CPUE + l) to approximate the normal distribution 

 of the catch data (Pennington 1983, 1985; Shaw et al. 

 1985). To compare catch rates of red snapper and spot- 

 ted seatrout between user groups and years, an 

 ANOVA (SAS 1985) was utilized. A Duncan's multi- 

 ple range test (SAS 1985) was performed to determine 

 differences in red snapper catches between the three 

 regions of coastal Louisiana (Fig. 2). Based on Uni- 

 variate Analysis (SAS 1985) of the residuals from 

 ANOVA tests and Duncan's multiple range tests, 

 statistical comparisons could only be made between 

 user groups and years for spotted seatrout and red 

 snapper and among areas and years for red snapper 

 to comply with the assumptions of the statistical tests 

 utilized. 



Results 



A total of 55 private boat operators and 10 charter- 

 boat operators returned usable logbooks in 1987, and 

 30 private boat operators and 5 charterboat operators 

 in 1988, representing return rates of 45.8% and 43.5% 



in 1987, and 25.0% and 20.8% in 1988, respectively. 

 Participants fished at 589 different oil and gas plat- 

 forms 1787 separate times over the study period. 

 Anglers fished at oil and gas platforms on 666 occa- 

 sions in 1987 and 362 times in 1988. Charterboat 

 operators fished at platforms 530 times in 1987 and 

 229 times in 1988. In 1987, private vessel and charter 

 operator logbook participants spent a total of 2482 

 hours fishing, representing 11014 angler hours. Dur- 

 ing 1988, 1057 vessel hours were spent fishing which 

 accounted for 4780 angler hours of fishing. Charter- 

 boat operators carried more fishermen than did the 

 private vessels for all three fishing methods (Table 



1). 



The most prevalent fishing method for both private 

 boat and charterboat anglers during 1987 and 1988 was 

 offshore bottom fishing. Offshore bottom fishing ac- 

 counted for 54.5% (1987) and 63.2% (1988) of private 

 vessel fishing trips, and 73.2% (1987) and 92.1% (1988) 

 of charterboat fishing trips. Nearshore fishing and troll- 

 ing were the ne.xt most prevalent fishing methods over 

 the survey period (Table 2). 



Study participants most often fished at the large 

 multiwell production platforms, based on the mean 

 submerged surface area and volume of water enclosed 

 by a structure, with charterboat operators fishing at 

 larger platforms than private boat anglers for all three 

 types of fishing (Table 3), although the study par- 

 ticipants utilized the available size range of structures 

 from single well caissons to semi-submersible drilling 

 platforms. 



