West Coast Limited Entry Groundfish Fixed Gear Economic Data Collection

National Marine Fisheries Service
2725 Montlake Blvd E.
Seattle, WA 98112

Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission
205 SE Spokane St, Suite 100
Portland, OR 97202

Dear Mr. Charles Smith

We would like to invite you to participate in a cost earnings survey of commercial fishing vessel
owners being conducted by the Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission in cooperation with
the National Marine Fisheries Service. This survey targets vessel owners who hold a federal
limited entry groundfish permit with a fixed gear endorsement. This survey updates a similar
survey conducted during 2009. Our goal is to support fisheries management decision-making
and to generate information that is required to help meet legal and regulatory requirements.
You can respond to this voluntary survey by; 1) completing the questionnaire and returning it in
the enclosed self-addressed stamped envelope, 2) answering the questionnaire on-line by
following the enclosed instructions for on-line response, or 3) meet with an in-person
interviewer to complete the questionnaire. A representative of Gilmore Research, a private
market research firm hired by the National Marine Fisheries Service and Pacific States Marine
Fisheries Commission, will begin attempting to contact you by phone about ten days after the
mailing of this letter. The Gilmore Research representative will be able to answer any questions
you may have about the various response options, and help you determine which option works
best for you.
We appreciate the confidential nature of the data being collected by this survey. When
publishing survey results, we will combine your responses with information provided by other
participants, and report it in summary form so that responses for any individual vessel cannot be
identified. If a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request is received for the data collected by
this survey, we will seek to protect the confidentiality of the survey responses under Exemption 4
of the FOIA.
Because you and other vessel owners are the only ones that can provide this information, we
encourage you to participate in this survey. By collecting information on individual vessels, we
can better understand average fleet characteristics as well as diversity within the fleet. Fisheries
managers will be better able to consider the effect of regulations.
Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,

Carl Lian
National Marine Fisheries Service
carl.lian@noaa.gov
(206)-302-2414

Dave Colpo
Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission
dave.colpo@psmfc.org
503-595-3100