West Coast Open Access Groundfish, Non-tribal Salmon, Crab, and Shrimp 2013 Economic Data Collection

Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission

205 SE Spokane St, Suite 100

Portland, OR 97202

National Marine Fisheries Service

2725 Montlake Blvd E.

Seattle, WA 98112

March 1, 2013

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 Northwest Fisheries Science Center. This survey targets vessel owners who (1) participate in the West Coast groundfish, salmon, crab, and shrimp fisheries and (2) do no hold a limited entry permit. This survey was designed through industry collaboration and updates a similar survey conducted during 2007. Our goal is to support fisheries management decision-making and to generate information that is required to help meet legal and regulatory requirements.

Because we do not have a telephone number at which you can be contacted, you have been selected for a mail/on-line questionnaire. .You can respond either by completing the enclosed questionnaire and returning it in the enclosed stamped self-addressed envelope, or completing the questionnaire on-line. In order to take the survey on-line, you can go to www.nmfsoa2013.com and enter the PIN number which appears on the top of the questionnaire (each survey recipient receives a questionnaire with a unique PIN number).

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 Dave Colpo

National Marine Fisheries Service Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission

‘’ dave.colpo@psmfc.org

(206)-302-2414 503-595-3100