Glossary
SUMMARIZE BY | WAVE(S) | YEAR TYPE | GEOGRAPHICAL AREA | SPECIES | SPECIES OPTIONS | TYPE OF CATCH | AVAILABLE DATA | LENGTH DISTRIBUTIONS | FISHING AREA | TYPE OF FISHING (MODE) | PSE | WEIGHT DATA | CENSUS DATA | PARTICIPATION | SAMPLE COVERAGE| SPECIES OPTIONS - DIRECTED TRIP
SUMMARIZE BY | There are four options for summarizing estimates,
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WAVE(S) | Two-month reference period (e.g. Wave 1=January/February) LPS estimates are available by month for sampled months, June - October. These months encompass the majority of LPS fishing along the Mid- and North Atlantic coasts. |
YEAR TYPE | For the MRIP/MRFSS Catch Estimates Comparison Query estimates are provided at the annual level for three selected year types,
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GEOGRAPHICAL AREA - STATE/AREA | Areas are arranged in geographical order by subregion. For example, the option "North Atlantic by State" will give you catch for the five states listed after that option (Maine through Connecticut ) on a state-by state basis. The "North Atlantic" option will give you the catch summed across the five states. Sampling began in Puerto Rico in 2000 (Caribbean subregion). LPS is conducted only in Atlantic coast states from Virginia through Maine. To complement NOAA Fisheries HMS management, these states are divived into two regions: Southern (Virgina-Southern New Jersey) and Northern (Northern New Jersey through Maine). New Jersey is divided along the border of Atlantic and Ocean counties. Due to the limited scale of recreational LPS fishing, several states are combined into two state groups: Maryland/Delaware, Connecticut/Rhode Island, and New Hampshire/Maine. HMS Catch Card programs are conducted only in Maryland and North Carolina. |
SPECIES | Common species are available using the pulldown menu, for other species use the "Species Assistance" button to the right of the menu. |
DIRECTED TRIP SPECIES OPTIONS | Primary Target will provide an effort estimate for all trips where the angler identified the selected species as their primary target for the trip. Secondary Target will provide an effort estimate for all trips where the angler identified the selected species as their secondary target for the trip. Caught - Available Catch (Type A) will provide an effort estimate for all trips where the selected species was caught and brought back to the dock in a form that could be identified by trained interviewers. Harvested - Unavailable Catch (Type B1) will provide an effort estimate for all trips where the selected species was caught and killed but not available for interviewer identification. Released - Unavailable Catch (Type B2) will provide an effort estimate for all trips where the selected species was caught and released alive. Selecting multiple of the above species options will provide an effort estimate for all trips with one or more of the above to be true, based on your selection. For example: Selecting Primary Target, Secondary Target, Released will provide an effort estimate for all trips with one or more of the following:
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TYPE OF CATCH | Type A catch are fish brought back to the dock in a form that can be identified by trained interviewers.
LPS catch types are limited to KEPT, ALIVE, and DEAD. KEPT refers to any fish retained by the vessel. ALIVE catch are only fish released from the vessel while still alive. DEAD refers only to dead fish discarded at sea. |
AVAILABLE DATA | ESTIMATES - Calculated values derived through the application of statistical methods to survey data.
SURVEY DATA - Data collected directly through our surveys of recreational fishing.
****** MRFSS estimates and survey data are currently available through 2003 and do not include revised estimates produced under the MRIP program. For more information on MRIP Survey Datasets, see MRIP Read Me.doc. MRIP variable formats and descriptions can be found in MRIP_Estimates_Variables.xls (estimate dataset variables) or MRIP_Survey_Variables.xls (survey dataset variables). ****** |
LENGTH DISTRIBUTIONS | Length distributions are available for selected species by inch group. Inches groups contain fish that were from X.00 to X.99 inches long. For example, inch group 9 means fish that are between 9.00 and 9.99 inches. These lengths are FORK lengths. Methodology:
Percent of A+B1 Landings (no. of fish) and A+B1 Landings (no.-at-length) are provided by length group. Records with missing length group values indicate the numbers of A+B1 landings with no length information. Percent Standard Error (PSE) is provided for MRIP based estimates of landings-at-length only. |
FISHING AREA | INLAND means inshore saltwater and brackish water bodies such as bays, estuaries, sounds, etc. It does not include inland freshwater areas. |
TYPES OF FISHING (MODE) | For a detailed breakdown of all modes, select ALL MODES BY MODE.
LPS and HMS Catch Card modes are limited to PRIVATE and CHARTER boat modes. PRIVATE mode includes vessels with either the HMS Angling category permit or Atlantic Tunas General category permit. CHARTER mode includes vessels with the HMS Charter/Headboat category permit. Vessels targeting large pelagic species without an HMS permit are also included in the dockside intercept survey. |
PSE | The PSE, or percent standard error, expresses the standard error of an estimate as a percentage of the estimate and is a measure of precision.
Data users should consider the width of confidence intervals surrounding estimates before drawing any far-reaching conclusions from point estimates.
Percent Standard Error (PSE) is automatically included with requested information , with one exception.
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WEIGHT DATA | USE CAUTION WITH WEIGHT DATA Weight Estimates Prior to 2004
If a cell is missing a mean weight, and if we have at least two fish measured in the state (all fishing areas and modes combined),
After state substitution, if the mean weight is still missing,
Weight Estimates 2004 to present During the MRIP re-estimation project, a new method was developed to handle missing weights as well. The new method uses a mix of hot and cold deck imputation as well as length-weight modeling to impute or fill in missing length or weight values by species at the individual angler-trip level. For individual fish records where lengths are present, missing weights are imputed using length-weight modeling of the form Weight = a*Length^b. In most cases, models are fit by species and two-month wave in the current year. Should a model fail to converge, models are fit by species using the most recent 10 years of data. For intercepted angler-trips with landings but no corresponding length and weight measurements, paired length and weight observations are imputed from complete cases using hot and cold deck imputation. Up to five rounds of imputation are conducted in an attempt to fill in missing values. The rounds begin with imputation cells that correspond to the most detailed MRIP estimation cells but are aggregated to higher levels in subsequent rounds to bring in more length-weight data:
For All Years
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CENSUS DATA | The effort estimates (numbers of trips) for the Marine Recreational Fishery Statistics Survey are calculated based on a random sample of residents of households in coastal counties. The average number of recreational saltwater fishing trips per household is calculated and this average is expanded by the number of households in the county. The number of households is based on annual projections made by the Survey of Buying Power (Bill Communications). Official Census Bureau counts of households for the 2000 Census have been recently released and where these numbers differed with the projections, the count of households has been updated to reflect the Census Bureau figure. These updates will result in some small changes to the effort, and hence also to the catch, estimates. 2005-2006 Hurricane Katrina Update |
PARTICIPATION | Participation estimates are available for three categories based on area of residence:
Summing across categories and geographic areas:
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SAMPLE COVERAGE | Currently, the recreational fishing statistics program conducted by the NOAA Fisheries includes the Atlantic coast (ME-East FL), Gulf coast (LA-West FL), Puerto Rico and Hawaii. Data presented in the queries are those from only these surveys. Data from other NOAA Fisheries and state surveys are not included in the query. Care is advised when comparing catch estimates across an extended time series because of differences in sampling coverage through the years. In the South Atlantic and Gulf sub-regions (NC- LA) party boat catch data have not been collected since 1985, so estimates for these sub-regions only include charter boats in the for-hire sector. Prior to 1998, on the Pacific coast, ocean boat trips and salmon trips were not sampled during certain waves because they were surveyed by state natural resource agencies. West Pacific U.S. territories have not been included in the national survey program since 1981. Hawaii was not surveyed between 1981 and 2002. The U.S. Caribbean was not surveyed between 1981 and 2000. Alaska conducts an annual mail survey in place of the NOAA Fisheries' program. Marine recreational fishing in Texas is monitored by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department and has not been surveyed by the NOAA Fisheries' survey program since 1985. Historically, only about five percent of the annual recreational catch on the Atlantic and Gulf coasts is taken during Wave 1 (Jan/Feb). Costs to sample these months are very high due to low fishing activity. Therefore, in Jan/Feb of 1981 the surveys were not conducted in any region. In 1982, Jan/Feb data collection resumed on the Pacific and Gulf coasts and also on the Atlantic coast of Florida. With a few exceptions the recreational statistics program has not collected data in Jan/Feb on the Atlantic coast north of Florida since 1980. Time periods when the marine recreational statistics program has not been conducted: Nov/Dec (ME & NH) - 1987 to present; Mar/Apr (ME & NH) - 1986 to present; Jan/Feb (Northern CA & OR) - 1994; Jan/Feb (Southern CA & OR) - 1995 Nov/Dec (OR) - 1994; Nov/Dec (WA shore modes) - 2003; July - Dec (OR shore modes) - 2003; All Waves (CA - WA) - 1990 to 1993, 2004 to present; All Waves (WA) - 1993 to 1994. The NOAA Fisheries Beaufort Laboratory conducts the Southeast Region Headboat Survey (SRHS) to provide headboat (partyboat) catch and effort for the Southeast Region (NC-TX). Data are available from: Southeast Fisheries Science Center The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department has conducted their own survey of marine recreational fisheries since 1974. Estimates for Texas are available from: Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, The Pacific states conduct surveys of salmon fishing, ocean-boat fishing, and California passenger fishing vessels. Estimates for these fisheries are available from: Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission, The Alaska Department of Fish and Game conducts surveys of recreational fishing in that state. |