SWFSC Correspondence for the West Coast Commercial Coastal Pelagic Finfish and Market Squid Fishery Vessel Cost-Earnings Survey

FILE NAME: 119215601

National Marine Fisheries Service

Southwest Fisheries Science Center

8901 La Jolla Shores Drive

La Jolla, CA 92037

«vessel_name»

«streetaddress»

«streetcity», «streetstate», «streetzip»

Dear «dba»,

We would like to invite you to participate in a cost earnings survey of commercial fishing vessel owners being conducted by NOAA Fisheries, Southwest Fisheries Science Center with assistance from XXX CONTRACTING FIRM XXX. We are interested in hearing from owners of commercial fishing vessels that during 20XX or 20XX+1:

1. operated with a federal West Coast Coastal Pelagic Species (CPS) limited entry permit,

2. participated in a West Coast live-bait fishery, or

3. landed at least $1,000 of Coastal Pelagic Species finfish and market squid on the West Coast (California, Oregon, and Washington), and did not operate with a West Coast (California, Oregon, and Washington) limited entry permit for either groundfish or highly migratory species.

Our goal is to support fisheries management decision-making and to generate information that is needed to help meet legal and regulatory requirements.

A copy of the survey questionnaire is enclosed so that you can see in advance the questions we will ask. Starting about one week from the mailing of this letter, we will begin attempting to contact you by telephone to arrange a time for your choice of a telephone interview, in-person or online interview to complete this questionnaire. You will be contacted by XXX CONTRACTING FIRM XXX. and are welcome to contact them with questions at XXX-XXX-XXXX.

Because you and other vessel owners are the only ones that can provide this information, we encourage you to participate in this survey. Your participation is voluntary and you are not required to participate in this survey. However, by collecting information from vessel owners like you, we can better understand average fleet characteristics as well as diversity within the fleet. With this information, fisheries managers will be better able to consider the effect of regulations.

Thank you for your consideration. We look forward to speaking with you.

Sincerely,

James Hilger

Southwest Fisheries Science Center

NOAA Fisheries | U.S. Department of Commerce

Office: (858) 546-7140

Email: james.hilger@noaa.go

Confidentiality

The SWFSC will maintain the confidentiality of the information consistent with legal authorities available to the SWFSC, including but not limited to the Privacy Act (5 U.S.C. Section 552a) and the Trade Secrets Act (18 U.S.C. Section 1905). In the event that the SWFSC receives a formal request for the information pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) (5 U.S.C. Section 552), the SWFSC will protect confidentiality to the extent possible under Exemption 4 of the FOIA.