SE For Hire Intercept Survey

Description and details of the questions included in the Southeast For-Hire Intercept Survey

1. INTERVIEWER ID. This is the interview identification number. Each interviewer will have an assigned individual identification number.

2. INTERVIEWER NAME This is the first and last name of the interviewer.

3. INTERVIEW DATE The year, month, and day of the interview. All in two digits. An example of January 15, 2021, would be 210115.

4. INTERVIEW TIME Using the 2400 clock provide the hour and minute of the start time of the interview. Also provide if it was in Central or Eastern Time. Put a C for Central time and an E for Eastern Time.

5. STATE Provide the Federal Information Process Standards (FIPS) state codes. Texas is 48, Louisiana is 22, Mississippi is 28, Alabama is 01, and Florida is 12.

6. COUNTY CODE Provide the county where the interview occurred. Use the Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) codes.

7. SITE CODE Provide the MRIP APAIS site code where the interview occurred. However, once the project gets going they will be switched to SEFHIER landings locations codes.

8. INTERVIEW STATUS Survey is complete if ALL of the questions were answered, except for the optional question at the end (question 19) which is when you will collect length and weight data if there is time and no other surveys to complete. Survey incomplete is when some but not all of the questions were answered, excluding length and weight data. Since length and weight data is only collected if there are no other federal charter trips to survey and if there is time to get length and weight data. The final option is refused a survey so the captain refused to answer any of the survey questions.

THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS ARE ASKED TO THE INDIVIDUAL WHO COMPLETED THE ELECTRONIC LOGBOOK FOR THE TRIP. This is most likely the captain but could be a mate.

*Interview the person that has or will be submitting the electronic logbook for the trip.

9. What is the vessel registration (state or federal) number? This will be displayed on the bow of the boat and can be either the U.S. Coast Guard vessel identification number (which will be 7 digits and an example is 1022362), or the state vessel identification number, such as TX9623JS for Texas or FL7544MX for Florida.

10. What is the vessel name?

The vessel name should be located on the stern or side of the vessel.

11. Do you have a federal for-hire permit? This question is asking if the captain has one or more of the following federal charter permits:

• Gulf of Mexico Charter/Headboat for Coastal Migratory Pelagic Fish (commonly referred to as CHG)

• Historical Captain Gulf of Mexico Charter/Headboat for Coastal Migratory Pelagic Fish (commonly referred to as HCHG)

• Gulf of Mexico Charter Headboat for Reef Fish (commonly referred to as RCG)

• Historical Captain Gulf of Mexico Charter Headboat for Reef Fish (commonly referred to as HRCG)

• South Atlantic Charter/Headboat for Snapper-Grouper (commonly referred to as SC)

• Atlantic Charter/Headboat for Coastal Migratory Pelagic Fish (commonly referred to as CHS)

• Atlantic Charter/Headboat for Dolphin Wahoo (commonly referred to as CDW)

If the captain has any of the federal charter permits, then move to question 13.

If No and the captain does not have a federal for-hire permit, then exit the interview. The program is to validate the catch of the federal charter vessel trips. Therefore, only conduct federal charter trip interviews. If the captain does not have a federal charter permit, then exit this interview and search for federal charter trips to interview.

12. What is/are your Federal For-hire Permit Number(s)?

They may have more than one federal charter permit. Collect all of their federal charter permit numbers. The federal charter permit number will be a 5 to 8-digit code such as CHG12 or HRCG1234. Include a dash between the letters and numbers when you record the permit number. For example, record CHG12 as CHG-12 and HRCG1234 as HRCG-1234.

The captain is required to have the permit on the fishing vessel. Visually inspect the permit to get the federal charter permit number. Also, if the captain has a federal charter permit number the vessel is required to have a decal on the port side of the boat. Below is an example of what the decal will look like although they make the decal in a different color each year. The decal will not have the charter permit number, but instead the decal displays the registration of the vessel.

12a. Only for interviews in Louisiana: Do you have a Louisiana charter boat fishing guide license, and if yes what is it?

If an interview takes place in the state of Louisiana, then ask the captain if they have a Louisiana Charter Boat Fishing Guide license. This license number is six digits and is all numbers with no letters. This information is needed to match with the Louisiana state recreational fishing survey.

13. For this trip, were you operating as a headboat (pay per person) or charter vessel (pay per trip) today?

If Yes to operating as a headboat then, move to question 13a.

If Yes to operating as a charter trip then, move to question 14.

If Not operating as headboat or charter trip them exit the interview.

The purpose of this question is the following:

*if they are a headboat and in the Southeast Region Headboat Survey then have them complete the logbook for the headboat survey and don’t interview them.

*if they are a headboat with a federal for-hire permit and are not in the Southeast Region Headboat Survey, then interview them.

*If they are not operating as a headboat or charter trip then you can exit the interview.

13a. Do you participate in the Southeast Region Headboat Survey?

If Yes, then remind them to complete their logbook and exit the interview.

If No, then move to question 14.

14. What is the captain’s or mate’s name?

Record the first, middle, and last name of the captain or mate that submitted the electronic logbook. Also, if there is a suffix (Jr, Sr, Third, III) then provide it in the suffix area. The main purpose of this question is to make sure you interview and record the name of the person that completed the electronic logbook. This information is needed to validate the electronic logbook data.

15. Where was most of your fishing effort?

The purpose of this question is to see if the captains are fishing in state or federal waters. However, the boundary for state and federal waters depends on the state. In Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama state waters are 3 statute miles or less from shore. In Texas and west Florida state waters are 10 statute miles or less from shore. Also, the state and federal boundary is listed in nautical miles, however, since most people use statute miles the question is asking the captains their location based on statute miles.

Also, they may have fished in both state and federal waters. If they fished in both then ask them if they spent more time in the trip fishing in federal or state waters.

16. To the nearest half-hour, how many hours have you spent fishing today?

The vessel monitoring system will have data on the trip duration. The reason for this question is to determine the actual fishing time. So report how many hours they spent with fishing gear in the water. Record this information to the nearest half hour.

17. How many people fished on your boat today?

Ask the captain how many people fished on the boat for this trip. Captain and crew do not count. So ensure the they do not include the captain and crew in the number of people that fished.

18. SPECIES-SPECIFIC NUMER OF FISH HARVESTED

The purpose of this question is to record the number of harvested fish. This may be dead fish in the cooler or fish that were already filleted and are not available for cannot be identified. Record the species and how many of each fish are harvested. Also record the NODC code which is the National Oceanographic Data Center Taxonomic Code. The NODC code is a 10-digit code specific to every species. Make sure you check all of the coolers since some boats captains may keep their harvest in multiple coolers.

It is critical to collect the total number of fish harvested on the trip. Sometimes all of the fish will be available for inspection. Sometimes some fish may already have been given away to customers before you arrive, but these fish still count as harvested fish. Another case is the fish was fileted and you can’t identify it to species. If the harvested fish cannot be identified to species, then ask the captain to tell you the species that was fileted and how many of them were harvested. If the fish is visually inspected, then the disposition code is 1. If the fish was harvested and is not available for inspection, then the disposition code is 2.

19. SPECIES-SPECIFIC NUMBER OF FISH RELEASED.

Did you catch any fish that you released and did not retain?

Record the species and also the number of fish that were released for each species during this trip.

20. If time allows and there are no other opportunities to interview charter captains, then collect length and weight data from the available catch.

If there are no other opportunities to interview other federally permitted captains at this site, then record the fork length and weight of the fish that were harvested. Record fork length in millimeters and weight in kilograms. If there is only time to collect length and weight data on some fish, then the priority would be to focus on federally manages species (e.g., snapper, grouper, greater amberjack, gray triggerfish, mackerel).

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