Request to adjust burden hours

Request to Adjust PRA Burden Hours for the Marine Recreational Fisheries Statistics Survey (OMB Control No. 0645-0052)

The NOAA Fisheries Service, Office of Science and Technology requests to adjust estimated FY07 PRA burden hours for “Marine Recreational Fisheries Statistics Survey” (OMB Control No. 0648-0052). We request 539 additional burden hours in order to expand directory frame telephone surveys of licensed marine recreational anglers into the Gulf of Mexico Subregion (Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana). We currently have clearance for 43,934 burden hours to collect recreational fishing catch, effort, and economic data. Of this total, 800 burden hours are dedicated to conducting directory frame telephone surveys in California, Oregon and Washington (Section 12c of Supporting Statement Marine Recreational Fishery Statistics Survey, OMB Control No. 0648-0052). This adjustment will accommodate an additional 8,696 angler interviews in FL, AL, MS, and LA.

The burden hours for this adjustment are estimated as follows

	Persons	Contacts	Mean Time (min.)	Total Time (min.)
Anglers with no trips*	5,218	5,218	1.0	5,218
Anglers with trips	3,478	3,478	7.8	27,128
TOTALS	8,696**	8,696		32,346 (539 hrs.)

* Based on 40 percent of anglers having trips during last two months.

** Based on sample sizes of 4,634 in FL, 858 in AL, 884 in MS and 2,320 in LA.

This survey will utilize sampling and estimation methods that have previously been approved for CA, OR and WA (item 12c), and will increase sampling efficiency for collecting angler effort data in the Gulf of Mexico subregion. The survey will overlap with the CHTS to allow for side-by-side comparisons and calibration of the new effort estimation approach with the traditional method. The questionnaire for the survey is included as Attachment 2d.