11 



The number of survey research questionnaires that need 

 to be administered in the U.S. as a whole poses other problems. 

 As a general rule^a 15% stratified sample is adequate to ensure 

 statistical reliability. The problem is in estimating the number 

 of fisheries, and this is difficult because such a large number 

 of people are involved on a seasonal or part-time basis. For 

 example, in the Maine lobster industry, there are some 10,600 

 licenses issued by the state, but only approximately 2500-2800 of 

 these can be coianted as comm.ercial fishermen. Many of these men 

 earn part of their income in other fisheries or in other industries. 

 The same is true in every other fishery in the U.S. In short, 

 the line between commercial fishermen, part-time fishermen and 

 sports fishermen is far from clear. No indication of relative 

 numbers can be obtained from number of licenses issued by State 

 Agencies--even though this is the usual method of obtaining such 

 data. 



For purposes of managing the marine fisheries of the 

 United States under PI 94-265 in the first fev/ years, we need to 

 concentrate on understanding the commerical fishing industry. 

 The law is aimed parimarily at regulating the commercial fisher- 

 men; and most important, they are the interested players. The 

 life of the sports fishermen will not be greatly affected by this 

 legislation. The problem then is how to estimate the numbers of 

 commerical fishermen — recognizing that some of these m.en may earn 

 a good deal of money in other industries. Without going into all 

 of the rule of thumb calculations I made, I estimate that we could 

 obtain a 15% stratified sample of fishermen in the U.S. by inter- 

 viewing approximately 6000 people. 



