Supplemental and Part B Questions

OMB Control No. 0648-0342

Expiration Date: 05/31/2018

Supplemental and Part B Questions for Clearance of Greater Atlantic Region

Customer Service Survey Questions

1. Explain who will be conducting this survey. What program office will be conducting the survey? What services does this program provide? Who are the customers? How are these services provided to the customer?
   
   

The survey will be conducted by the Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries Office, Stakeholder Engagement Division. The Stakeholder Engagement Division (SED) is composed of the Assistant Regional Administrator (ARA) for Stakeholder Engagement, the Greater Atlantic Region’s communications team and the fishing industry outreach team. The division’s staff are responsible for public affairs and communications support, and fishery industry outreach for the Greater Atlantic Region. In addition, the ARA for Stakeholder engagement represents the Regional Administrator in the mid-Atlantic on a number of issues including serving as a liaison with the Mid-Atlantic Fisheries Management Council and the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, coordinating Habitat Conservation Consultations in the mid-Atlantic, and coordinating protected resources section 7 consultations.

This survey will target stakeholders involved in the commercial fishing industry, and to a lesser extent, the recreational fishing industry.  Future follow-up surveys may be used to target other stakeholders, partners, and the general public.

2. Explain how this survey was developed. With whom did you consult during the development of this survey on content? Statistics? What suggestions did you get about improving the survey?
   
   

The purpose of this project is to obtain feedback from fishing industry stakeholders, (primarily the commercial fishing industry), on the clarity and usefulness of our communication products and tools. This feedback will be used to inform and improve our future communications efforts.

The survey was developed through a collaborative effort among staff from the Stakeholder Engagement Division. The most appropriate questions were selected from each pre-cleared list of questions (8 qualitative and 6 quantitative) by a small group of SED staff, and revised to meet the purpose of the Region’s survey. These draft survey questions were then sent out to all SED staff for input. The questions were then finalized during a conference call among all SED staff.

3. Explain how the survey will be conducted. How will the customers be sampled (if fewer than all customers will be surveyed)? What percentage of customers asked to take the survey will respond? What actions are planned to increase the response rate? (Web-based surveys are not an acceptable method of sampling a broad population. Web-based surveys must be limited to services provided by Web.)

NOAA has access to several online survey technologies. We have chosen to use the Office of Personnel Management’s (OPM) Max Survey as our survey tool. We will post a link to this survey on the home page of the Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries Office’s website and will make our target audience aware of the survey through email announcements using our existing stakeholder email list, and also request that our partners (the New England and Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Councils and the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission) share our email announcement with their networks. We will post a link to the survey on Fish On-line, which is a password protected portal for fishing vessel owners. We will also use social media (Twitter and Facebook) to get the word out about this survey. Additionally, our port agents (staff in the field that conduct outreach to the fishing industry) will be provided with instructions and resources to promote the survey with commercial and recreational stakeholders in their regions. The port agents will be instructed to encourage commercial and recreational fishermen to take the survey as part of their regular interactions with these individuals while they are on the docks, at commercial and recreational fishing shows, or when a fisherman stops by one of our 9 port offices located from Maine to Virginia to ask a question or seek advice.

We will conduct the survey over a period of 30 days. As described above, we will use a variety of outreach methods to target commercial and recreational fishermen, ranging from email announcements, to social media, to in-person interactions. We expect that approximately 15% of fishermen who use Fish On-line will take the survey, and that a smaller percentage of individuals who visit our website or interact with port agents (30%) will take the survey. We hope that through these efforts, we can obtain survey responses from at approximately 600 individuals over the 30-day survey period.

4. Describe how the results of this survey will be analyzed and used. If the customer population is sampled, what statistical techniques will be used to generalize the results to the entire customer population? Is this survey intended to measure a GPRA performance measure? (If so, please include an excerpt from the appropriate document.)

We will conduct a qualitative analysis of the survey responses, including some basic descriptive statistics.

The results of this project will be used to improve communications with our fishing industry stakeholders throughout the Greater Atlantic Region. The results will be shared with all collaborators and any interested NMFS groups.

This survey is not intended to measure a GPRA performance measure.

B. COLLECTIONS OF INFORMATION EMPLOYING STATISTICAL METHODS

1. Describe (including a numerical estimate) the potential respondent universe and any sampling or other respondent selection method to be used. Data on the number of entities (e.g. establishments, State and local governmental units, households, or persons) in the universe and the corresponding sample are to be provided in tabular form. The tabulation must also include expected response rates for the collection as a whole. If the collection has been conducted before, provide the actual response rate achieved.

GARFO permits seafood dealers, fishing vessel, and vessel operators. There are approximately 5,900 active permitted entities. However, this number includes some individuals that hold permits in more than one of the above categories. This survey will be available to these entities as well as to others. However, it will be directed towards these permit holders.

	Number of Active Entities	Likely to Reach	Response Rate	Expected Total Respondents
Number of active permitted vessels	2,400	100%	15%	360
Number of active seafood dealers	720	50%	30%	108
Number of active vessel operators	2,800	20%	5%	28
	5,920			496

In addition to the above permitted entities, there are a large number (nearly 1 million) of individual recreational anglers throughout our region (Maine through North Carolina). We will not be directly targeting recreational fishermen with our outreach methods, but several are on our email list, follow us on social media, or frequently visit our website. Additionally, our port agents will reach out to recreational fishermen in their areas where the opportunity arises. We estimate that approximately 100 recreational fishermen will respond to our survey.

2. Describe the procedures for the collection, including: the statistical methodology for stratification and sample selection; the estimation procedure; the degree of accuracy needed for the purpose described in the justification; any unusual problems requiring specialized sampling procedures; and any use of periodic (less frequent than annual) data collection cycles to reduce burden.

This will be a qualitative survey from which we will be reviewing the responses for general information on our current communications efforts and methods. If we conduct this survey again in the future, at that point we may review trends between surveys to determine if changes in our communications have made improvements.

3. Describe the methods used to maximize response rates and to deal with nonresponse. The accuracy and reliability of the information collected must be shown to be adequate for the intended uses. For collections based on sampling, a special justification must be provided if they will not yield "reliable" data that can be generalized to the universe studied.

No sampling of our population will be done and no tracking of individual responses will occur. The survey will be made available through a number of currently available tools including broad based email messages to constituents, electronic bulletin board (i.e., Fish Online) notices, and notices on public web pages. Staff will also make the survey known to constituents as they personally interact with them.

4. Describe any tests of procedures or methods to be undertaken. Tests are encouraged as effective means to refine collections, but if ten or more test respondents are involved OMB must give prior approval.

No public testing of the survey questions will be done.

5. Provide the name and telephone number of individuals consulted on the statistical aspects of the design, and the name of the agency unit, contractor(s), grantee(s), or other person(s) who will actually collect and/or analyse the information for the agency.

This is not a quantitate survey and no individuals were consulted for statistics design. However, we may use publicly available resources to assist us with analysing survey results, including NOAA’s Office for Coastal Management, Planning for Meaningful Evaluation training program.

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