Angler License Directory Survey (ALDS)

Background:

The Marine Recreational Fisheries Statistics Survey (MRFSS) collects data on marine recreational fishing effort through the Coastal Household Telephone Survey (CHTS).  The CHTS utilizes a random digit dialing approach to contact residents of coastal county households and collect information on fishing behavior.  While the CHTS provides nearly complete coverage of the target population (residents of coastal county households) the methodology can be quite inefficient, as a relatively small proportion of the population participates in recreational fishing during any given sampling period.  This requires that a large number of households be contacted in order to obtain a sample of fishing households that is sufficient for producing reasonably precise estimates of fishing effort. 

A more efficient approach to collecting fishing effort data is to sample from lists of known or likely saltwater anglers.  Such lists exist in some states in the form of databases of saltwater fishing license holders.  The purpose of this task is to conduct a telephone survey of marine recreational fishing effort utilizing existing databases of saltwater fishing license holders as list-based sampling frames.  The Angler License Directory Survey (ALDS) will be conducted in Louisiana and North Carolina during waves 5-6, 2009 and waves 1-6, 2010.  The survey may be expanded to other states in 2010, pending implementation of the Federal saltwater angler registry and/or implementation of new state saltwater licensing programs.  At a maximum, the ALDS will be expanded to five additional states in 2010.