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MRIP kicks off Road Show in New Jersey, heads
to Florida in May
MRIP is conducting a Road Show this spring and
summer to meet with constituents along the Atlantic
and Gulf coasts. The meetings provide anglers
and other stakeholders the opportunity to pose
questions, share their ideas and concerns, and
learn the latest MRIP news.
The Communications and Education Team began
its Road Show with a series of listening sessions,
both formal and informal, with recreational
fishermen in New Jersey at the beginning of
April. We traveled up and down the state's coastline
to meet with tackle shop owners, fishing groups,
recreational fishing advocates, members of the
New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection
Marine Fisheries Division, and everyday anglers
from all walks of life.
The goals of the Road Show are to ensure that
we're effectively communicating what has been
accomplished under MRIP, build a dialogue among
partners and stakeholders around the direction
the program is headed, and ensure that expectations
of all parties are aligned with the on-the-ground
realities of resources, needs, and priorities.
In mid-May, MRIP will visit Florida's Atlantic
and Gulf coasts to meet with stakeholders. If
you would like to participate in one of our
meetings or help organize a meeting, please
contact Forbes Darby at
forbes.darby@noaa.gov.
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Calibration Workshop proposes continued re-estimation,
calibration factor
Representatives from Councils, Commissions,
states, and NOAA Fisheries came together for
a Calibration Workshop last month, co-hosted
by Southeast Data, Assessment, and Review (SEDAR)
program. The workshop participants considered
developing a method to adjust catch estimates
derived from the old Marine Recreational Fishing
Statistics Survey (MRFSS) with the more accurate
estimates produced using the improved Marine
Recreational Information Program (MRIP) methodology.
Managers will then be able to use the recalibrated
MRFSS estimates in stock assessments and fisheries
management.
Currently, MRFSS catch data is re-estimated
as far back as 2004 using the new MRIP methodology.
In a consensus document, participants recommended
that NOAA Fisheries should continue to re-estimate
catch data prior to 2004 using the MRIP methodology
to create as long a time series as possible.
For the interim, while NOAA Fisheries re-estimates
catch for earlier years, workshop participants
decided a catch adjustment factor, or ratio,
based on the difference in catch estimates between
the old and new methodologies during the years
they overlap would be the most appropriate way
to reconcile the differences.
The workshop participants concluded that using
such an adjustment factor and continuing to
re-estimate historic data in most cases would
not require a new benchmark assessment or immediate
recalculation of current ACLs. Instead, NOAA
Fisheries should:
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Monitor catch using the calibration ratio
to scale the new MRIP estimates to allow
compatability with the basis for established
ACLs;
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Base ACLs on the new MRIP methodology as
stock assessments are updated; and
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Update ACLs that are based exclusively on
historic catch for data-poor stocks by using
a time series that includes new MRIP and
calibrated historic catch estimates.
Moving forward, a working group was formed to
further develop a more refined technical approach
to hind-casting and forecasting catch estimates.
The working group will also identify species
whose catch estimates are most affected by the
transition to MRIP, and provide this list to
the northeast and southeast region's stock assessment
steering committee to help them decide which
species assessments should be prioritized over
the coming years. The working group's findings
are expected to be released in May.
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New report summarizes ongoing work to improve
effort surveys
Just as we've done with our catch surveys, MRIP
is making improvements to our effort, or trip,
surveys. A new report summarizes the results
of recently completed MRIP pilot studies and
provides recommendations for future testing
and implementation of improved effort survey
designs.
For the past several years, MRIP has examined
ways to improve upon the existing method of
random-digit dialing of coastal households,
which the National Research Council indicated
could suffer from inefficiency, poor response
rates, and undercoverage. MRIP researchers confirmed
that participation in telephone surveys continues
to decline, while their experiments with mail
surveys showed promise in improving response
rates and overall quality of the data. To ensure
complete coverage, researchers drew from two
overlapping databases, or sampling frames, of
potential anglers - the National and State Saltwater
Angler Registries and the U.S. Postal Service's
national address database. Dual-frame approaches
such as this was one of the recommendations
from the National Research Council.
The preliminary results from these pilot projects
were encouraging, but limited to the small sample
area; further testing is required to validate
our findings. As a next step, MRIP will conduct
a study that tests a specific effort data collection
alternative to produce potentially more efficient
and more accurate estimates. More information
about this project, Finalize Design of MRIP
Fishing Surveys, is included in the section
below on MRIP's approved 2012 projects.
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2012 Approved MRIP projects announced; upcoming
studies look at effort surveys, evaluating tradeoffs
and electronic logbook usage
The Operations Team announced its' approved
projects for the 2012 proposal cycle. Below
are a few examples of the 14 projects that were
funded.
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Finalize Design of MRIP Fishing Surveys
is a project thatbuilds upon previous MRIP
pilot studies, to test a dual-frame, mail
survey method for collecting information
about how many trips anglers are taking
and determine its broad scale effectiveness.
The project moves us ever closer to a new
effort survey design that is scientifically
rigorous and statistically sound.
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MRIP Computer Simulation of Tradeoffs between
Timeliness, Precision and Cost
will develop a simulation model to assess
tradeoffs between timeliness, precision
and cost in producing recreational catch
and effort estimates.The second phase of
the project will analyze the results of
the simulation model to build a decision
support tool that will help determine the
proper mix of people, places, and times
to sample to best meet customer and stakeholder
data needs.
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Survey-Wide Implementation of Electronic
Logbook Reporting on Headboats Operating
in the U. S. South Atlantic and Gulf of
Mexico (Phase II)
will expand electronic logbook reporting
to all vessels that participate in the Southeast
Region Headboat Survey. The project's goal
is to increase the timeliness and quality
of logbook reporting by headboats in the
Southeast region.
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Several projects improving survey methods
on the Pacific coasts
have been funded. These include exploring
alternative methods of data collection in
Hawaii that address their unique recreational
fishing community, developing a new design
for shore and estuary-boat surveys in Oregon,
and resigning California's methods for surveying
anglers at manmade structures and private
access sites.
For more information on all of MRIP's pilot
projects, please visit
http://www.countmyfish.noaa.gov/projects/index.html.
Coming Soon: A new searchable database of past,
current and future MRIP projects.
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Ask MRIP
Do you have questions about MRIP, the Road Show,
the calibration workshop, the effort surveys,
or next steps? Ask us and we'll answer your
question in an upcoming newsletter. Submit questions
to Forbes Darby at
forbes.darby@noaa.gov.
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The Marine Recreational Information Program,
or MRIP, is the new way NOAA Fisheries is counting
and reporting marine recreational catch and
effort. It is a customer-driven initiative that
will not only produce better estimates, but
will do so through a process grounded in the
principles of transparency, accountability and
engagement.
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FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Forbes Darby
(301) 427-8528
forbes.darby@noaa.gov
CountMyFish.noaa.gov
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