introduction to the survey and information on the Privac/ Act of 1974, an oral interview 

 concerning the fishing trip just completed (e.g., how long the person had fished, what gear was 

 used), followed by an examination of the respondent's catch. Length and weight data for a 

 sample of each species in the respondent's catch were collected (see Appendix B for survey 

 instrument). 



The interview procedures varied slightly by mode. When assigned to party/charter 

 boats, the interviewer occasionally rode on the boat to conduct interviews and to examine the 

 catch. Private/rental boat fishermen were interviewed at boat ramps and hoists while waiting 

 to recover their boat or at dockside while cleaning the boat. Shore fishermen were widely 

 distributed along beaches and banks with multiple access points. However, those fishing from 

 man-made structures often had a single egress point where the fishermen could easily be 

 intercepted by the sampler. Interview procedures were developed and implemented for each 

 mode and unique set of conditions, including those where the catch was unavailable for 

 identification, catches by more than one person, and multiple-day boat trips. 



PROCEDURES FOR DEVELOPING EXPANDED ESTIMATES 



The estimates derived from the telephone and intercept surveys fall into three 

 categories: estimates of the number of trips taken, the number of finfish caught and/or landed 

 (number and weight), and the number of participants in fishing activities. 



Nunnber of trips 



The estimate of coastal county resident trips was derived from telephone survey and 

 Bureau of the Census county population data. A proportion was derived of households with 

 fishing activity in the previous 2 months to ail households contacted in the sample. This factor 

 was multiplied by census data on the number of permanent full-time households in each county 

 to estimate total coastal fishing households in a State. The proportion of fishing trips by mode 

 from the household sample was applied to the estimate of total fishing households to estimate 

 coastal county resident trips by mode. 



The telephone survey could not provide information on the number of trips taken by 

 persons who resided in non-teiephone households, or who lived beyond the 25 or 50-mile coastal 

 zone from which the telephone numbers were drawn. Ratio estimators for calculating trip 

 estimates covering both of these situations were derived from the intercept survey. For 



