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 during 2012 and (2) did no hold a limited entry groundfish permit. This survey was designed through industry collaboration and updates an earlier survey conducted during 2011. Our goal is to support fisheries management decision-making and to generate information that is required to help meet legal and regulatory requirements.

Based on the availability of a telephone number, you have been selected for an in-person interview. You will be receiving a phone call about one to two weeks after the date on this letter to schedule your interview. The enclosed questionnaire is provided at this time so that you know what information to have available during the interview. You do not need to return the questionnaire prior to the interview. We will contact you by telephone to schedule a time and place to meet for the interview at your convenience. The telephone call will also provide information about responding to the survey on-line if you would prefer responding on-line rather than an in-person interview.

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

carl.lian@noaa.gov dave.colpo@psmfc.org

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