Responses to OMB Desk Officer's concerns

ECU – OMB comment reply May 1^st 2012

NPS Supporting Document A

• No comments so no action required

NPS Supporting Document B

• Comment regarding the selection of the nth visitor

• Issue – ensuring randomness of the sample

• Action

  • The language in that paragraph was changed from nth visitor to nth group or individual to remove any notion of bias

  • Interceptors will be supplied with clicker counters to make it easy to keep track

  • As noted, interceptors will only take the contact details of one individual per group if a group is intercepted which should remove some bias

Relevant paragraph from Document B reflecting changes:

Several strategies will be employed to ensure the randomness of each sample at each park. For intercepts at BISC all initial contacts will be face-to-face. To ensure randomness every nth group or individual will be intercepted. If groups are encountered, only one individual per group will be asked to participate. Asking the potential respondents who had the most recent birthday will assist in identifying that individual in a random way. Interceptors will be supplied with clicker counters as a means of simplifying the counting process.

GPS Tracker contact procedure

• Comment concerning ocean zoning

• Issue – allaying fears of possible zoning and management

• Action

  • Included a sentence that clarifies the purpose of the study

Relevant paragraph from contact procedures document reflecting changes:

Hi my name is ___ and I am with East Carolina University. We are conducting a survey of visitors here at Biscayne National Park. This study will help the park managers better understand how visitors are using the park for recreational trips and the diverse range of activities that are happening within the park. Managers need this information to understand visitor attitudes, and perceptions concerning marine resources around the park. Would you be willing to participate in our study?

Biscayne Marine Reserve Survey

Question 10

• Issue - Possible to simplify?

• Response

  • The first part of the question (items a-d) are to do with the natural populations and their ability to recover, the other items are to do with cause of, and blame for, damage to the resource. These are not the same constructs that are being examined

• Action

  • None

Question 11

• Issue - Knowledge base

• Response

  • The point is that users of the park have opinions and positions that need to be understood, even if they are factually wrong. This is an important baseline to understand for interpretive programs and education campaigns

• Action

  • None

Question 15

• Issue – word inclusion

• Action – included word ‘surrounding’ in items c, d, and e

Question 17

• Issue – item d

• Response

  • Asking about who should decide about the creation of MPAs not whether or not they should be created. This goes to procedural justice issues and issues of informational input

• Action

  • None

Question 22

• Issue – use of the word ‘temporary’

• Response

  • The use of ‘temporary’ in the way has standing in the recreational literature. In this case we are asking about temporary vs a long term postponement of activities, independent of future access

• Action

  • None

Question 26

• Issue – use of word ecological

• Action – substituted environmental as suggested

Question 39

• Issue – use of multiple income categories

• Response

  • Listing multiple categories imposes no extra burden on the respondent but provides more detail for us. They can be combined during analysis if necessary. These categories have been used on surveys in the area before and so this provides consistency across instruments.

• Action

  • None

Biscayne Fishing Survey

Questions 15-18

• Issue – possibility of deleting?

• Response

  • These questions are all part of the recreation specialization index (Salz et al, 2001). This index has been repeated validated and shown to be reliable. The deletion of any these items would impact the results significantly and render the index invalid

• Action

  • None

Question 24

• Issue – is this a repeat of question 23?

• Response

• The use of sources of information and the usefulness of those sources are two different things. This is an important question that will provide avenues to maximize interpretive programs and education campaign materials

• Action

  • None

Question 35

• Issue – can this be inferred from question 34?

• Response

  • The theories of obligation and embarrassment have to do with personal and social norms. You cannot infer one from the other, therefore we feel that both questions are necessary

• Action

  • None

Question 44

• See marine reserve question 10 (recovery ability vs cause and blame)

Question 43

• Issue – water clarity for anglers?

• Response

  • Not only relevant to spearfishing, especially if think of the enjoyment of the activity rather than just the ability to harvest fish. This goes to the values we attach to environmental quality overall

• Action

  • None

Question 48 and 49

- Do they mirror question 46?

• Response

  • No, these items are asking about impressions of the overall park vs fish populations, which are different.

  • Question 49 speaks to the perceptions of a trend over time

• Action

  • None

Question 50

• No take zones

• Response

  • This can be argued either way

• Action

  • Changes were made as suggested by contracting items a and b

Question 60

• See marine reserve question 39

Biscayne Diving Survey

Question 12

• Issue – average cost of SCUBA equipment

• Response

  • As people become more involved in a sport the value of their equipment increases. The national average that is calculated really does not allow the amount of detail needed to fully understand the diving population in BISC

• Action

  • None

Questions 13-16

• See fishing question 15-18 response (specialization theory)

Question 22

• See fishing question 24 response

Question 33

• See fishing question 35 response (obligation vs embarrassment)

Question 43

• See fishing question 44 response (recovery ability vs cause and blame)

Question 48-49

• See fishing question 48-49 response (overall park vs fish populations, trends over time)

Dry Tortugas Ferry Boat

• No additional comments

Dry Tortugas Private Boat

Question 26

• Issue – inclusion of snorkeling

• Action – questions 25 and 26 were modified to reflect snorkelers too

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