Household Screening Introduction
The interviewer must briefly state the purpose of the data collection and explain how the respondent’s name and phone number were selected for the interview.
Introduction Hello, I’m calling to conduct a survey for the National Marine Fisheries Service of the U.S. Department of Commerce. We are collecting information for use in conservation of coastal resources, and we would appreciate your help with this important study. Before we begin, I want to assure you that your answers will be kept confidential, and this call may be monitored for quality assurance. [As needed: May I please speak with an adult in the household?]
The interviewer must state that the data will remain confidential in accordance with the Privacy Act of 1974, and that the respondent=s responses to questions are entirely voluntary. Respondents are not obligated in any way to answer questions that they consider to be an invasion of their privacy.
The survey is being conducted in accordance with the Privacy Act of 1974, therefore you are not obligated to answer any question if you find it to be an invasion of your privacy.
For the CHTS, it may be most efficient to establish the general purpose of the survey before conducting additional screening. Asking the initial household respondent a very generic initial question like "Does anyone in this household go fishing?" accomplishes this goal.
Q1 How many people in this household go fishing?
Q2-Q4 are for sample quality control and are asked of all initial household respondents.
Q2 To help me assign your information to the correct location, is the telephone number I’ve reached you at located in {restore name from sample} county / parish / island / municipality?
This question verifies the location of the household dialed.
Q3 Is this your permanent residence? [Interviewer prompt if needed: “Where you live at least 6 months out of the year.”]
This question verifies that the household contacted is a permanent, year-round residence.
Q4 How many people in total, including yourself, live in your household? Please include those people who fish and who don’t fish.
This question provides a cross check against the answer to Q1 to ensure that the respondent is not including people other than household members as fishermen.
At this point, if the response to number of fishermen in the household is equal to zero then the questionnaire skips to the final quality control question (gender) and skips the additional marine recreational 2-month and 12-month fishing screeners.
If there are fishermen identified in question 1, the interviewer reads a specific and detailed explanation of the purpose of the survey before asking questions to determine the number of eligible 12-month and 2-month fishermen in the household. This detailed description identifies exactly what type of fishing activity qualifies anglers in the household. Based on this description of recreational fishing, saltwater, and finfish versus shellfish, the initial household respondent should be able to say how many eligible anglers reside in the household.
We want to gather information from people who have been recreational saltwater fishing. Saltwater fishing includes fishing in oceans, sounds, or bays, or in brackish portions of rivers. This does not include fishing in freshwater, or for shellfish, such as crabbing. Recreational fishing means the primary purpose of the fishing is for fun or relaxation, as opposed to providing income from the sale of fish.
Q5 How many people in your household, including children and adults, have been recreational saltwater fishing in the last 12 months anywhere in the US (including Hawaii and the mainland) or in a US territory?
Q6 Thinking just about the past 2 months, how many of the people living in your household, including children and adults, have been recreational saltwater fishing in the last 2 months in the US or a US territory?
Q7 Record gender of respondent.
The interviewer codes the gender of the initial respondent for all fishing and non-fishing households.
At this point, several questions are asked to determine how many of the people living in the household possessed a saltwater fishing license. These questions are only asked in states in which the Angler License Directory Survey (ALDS) is being conducted (NC and LA for 2009).
Q8 During the past 12 months, did you have a FISHING LICENSE for the state of {restore state of residence}?”
Q9 {If Q8=NO} During the past 12 months, did anyone in the household have a FISHING LICENSE for the state of {restore state of residence}?
Q10 “Was this particular license for Recreational Saltwater Fishing”
Q11 “Was this license valid between {conditional restore: w1=”January, w2=March, w3= May, w4=July, w5= October, w6= December”}12th?
Q12 How many members of the household, INCLUDING YOURSELF, were licensed to go saltwater fishing in {restore license state} during the previous two months?
Finally, for households with eligible 2-month anglers, the initial household respondent is asked to provide a roster of all two-month anglers. If the respondent is reluctant to give names, the interviewer is instructed to ask for identifiers such as mother, father, oldest child, second oldest child, etc..
Q13 I’d like to ask each person who has been recreational saltwater fishing in the last 2 months a few questions about their fishing trip(s). What are the first names of the people in your household who have been recreational saltwater fishing in the past 2 months?
Angler Screening
Angler screening questions must be repeated for each new angler interviewed. Screening for each angler introduces the survey, must cover the definitions that establish eligibility (saltwater, finfish, eligible trips), and must paraphrase the privacy act.
Hello, I’m conducting a survey on recreational saltwater fishing for the National Marine Fisheries Service. We want to gather information from people who have been recreational saltwater fishing. Saltwater fishing includes fishing in oceans, sounds, or bays, or in brackish portions of rivers. This does not include fishing in freshwater, or for shellfish, such as crabbing. Recreational fishing means the primary purpose of the fishing is for fun or relaxation, as opposed to providing income from the sale of fish.
I understand that you’ve been saltwater fishing in the past 2 months. I’d like to ask you a few questions about your most recent fishing trips. All of your answers will be kept confidential, and this survey is voluntary, so you are not required to answer any question that you feel is an invasion of your privacy.
In many cases all the fishermen in the household take all of their trips together. To avoid unnecessary burden and allow more efficient looping, this information is collected at the beginning of trip profiling.
Q1 First, did all of the fishermen in your household take all of their fishing trips together over the last 2 months?
Next, each angler is asked questions to determine if he/she had a saltwater fishing license during the wave. Again, these questions are only asked of anglers in states where the ALDS is being conducted.
Q2 During the past twelve months, did you have a FISHING LICENSE for the state of {restore state of residence} ?
Q3 Was this particular license for Recreational Saltwater Fishing?
Q4 Was this license valid between {Restore Wave Period}?
Trip Profiling Instructions
All anglers in the household must be interviewed separately about their fishing trips in the last two months. There are exceptions to this rule (see Dialing Procedures, 4.1.1).
Two-Month Trips: The first questions determine the total numbers of days in which the angler took fishing trips in the previous two months. For estimation purposes, it is necessary to separate in-state trips from out-of-state trips.
QT1 On how many days in the past two months, between {TODAY- days in wave} AND {TODAY-1}, did you (s/he) go recreational saltwater fishing in {state of residence} or in a boat launched from {state of residence}?
QT2 On how many days in the past two months, between {TODAY- days in wave} and {TODAY-1}, did you (s/he) go saltwater fishing in any coastal state or territory of the US other than { state of residence} or from a boat launched from another coastal state or territory of the US?
The following questions are then asked for each fishing day (total of QT1 and QT2) in the wave until all trips are profiled.
Date of Trip - Beginning with the most recent trip, the interviewer must record the date (month and day) of the fishing trip. If the respondent cannot recall the exact day of the month, the interviewer should probe for the month, and whether it was a weekday or a weekend day (including holidays). The CATI system should display allowable dates, and interviewers must have a calendar available to help respondents determine dates.
QT3 [Ask for 1st trip] When did you (s/he) last go saltwater fishing? Or [Ask if not 1st trip] Can you tell me the date of the saltwater fishing trip prior to that one? I have a calendar with me in case we need to look up some of the specific dates.
QT3a [If respondent can’t remember the date in Q3, ask] Was that a weekday or weekend?
If an angler cannot recall all the trips within the two month period, the interviewer must note the date they stopped counting. The angler must then be asked to estimate the number of trips in each mode of fishing during the period between their last reported trip date and the beginning of the two month period.
Mode of Trip - There may be more than one fishing trip within a day and all such trips should be profiled. If more than one mode was used during a fishing day, the interviewers should record each mode (shore, private/rental boat or charter/head boat) as a separate trip; however, if a fisherman made 2 outings in the same mode in a day, that only counts as one trip. Interviewers must record a single fishing mode for each trip.
QT4 On that day, did you ( he/she) fish from a boat?
If no, skip to QT5 for shore fishing.
QT4a [Ask if Q4 =yes] Was that from a ... [read]
1 Party or head boat -- CATEGORY B
2 Charter boat -- CATEGORY B
3 Private boat -- CATEGORY C
4 Rental boat -- CATEGORY C
5 Boat - don’t know what type -- CATEGORY C
A respondent may choose up to two boat types for the day but the two responses can not be from the same category, i.e. a respondent could choose the following boat mode combinations: (1&3) or (2&3) or (1&4) or (2&4).
If a respondent reports Charter/party fishing, follow-up questions are asked to determine if the respondent is a captain or member of the crew.
Even if the respondent has one or more boat trips, the interviewer must ask if there were any shore trips made that day.
QT5 On that day, did you (he/she) fish from the shore?
or On that day, did you also (he/she) fish from the shore? (If QT4 was “Yes”)
QT5a [Ask if QT5=yes] Was that from a ... [read]
1 Pier
2 Dock
3 Jetty / Breakwater
4 Bridge / Causeway
5 Other manmade structure
6 Bank / Beach
The CATI program should assign a consecutive trip number for each trip by an individual angler.
State of Fishing - Interviewers should record the three digit FIPS code for the state of fishing, or the state where a boat returned. Trips to all coastal states and U.S. territories are eligible, and the CATI system should provide a list of those coastal states. Trips to inland states are not eligible.
QT6 [For boat trips, use:] To what coastal state or US territory did the boat return?
[For shore trips, use:] In what state or U.S. territory were you fishing?
[Prompt as needed with a list of states]
County of Fishing - Interviewers should record the three digit FIPS code for the county of fishing, or the county where the boat returned. A series of follow-up questions may be necessary if the county of fishing is unknown, or an angler reports fishing in a county that does not have saltwater access.
QT7 [For boat trips, use:] To what coastal county/parish/island/municipality did the boat return?
[For shore trips, use:] In what coastal county/parish/island/municipality were you fishing?
Access to Fishing – Anglers are asked how they accessed the water; through a public access site or a privately owned site. A series of follow-up questions are asked to specifically determine the access type.
QT8 Does the public have access to the place from which the boat left, or is it private access?
Time of Return – Anglers are asked to report the time that the fishing trip ended.
QT9 At what time did you stop fishing?
Type of Water Fished - Anglers are asked what type of "water body" they did most of their fishing in during that day's fishing trip. In certain circumstances, follow-up questions may be asked to confirm that fishing was in saltwater, or to identify specific water bodies.
QT10 Was most of your fishing effort that day in the ocean, a sound, a river, a bay or an inlet?
If an angler attempts to terminate an interview before all trips are profiled, the CATI system should allow the interviewer to skip to a section where they can record all remaining trips by mode, if possible, and skip the rest of the trip details.
At the end of each trip profile, the CATI program should loop to the next logical action:
1) profile the next most recent fishing day and trips, or
2) if all trips are profiled, thank the respondent and either terminate the interview or ask for the next available angler.
At the end of the interview, after all trip information has been collected, a series of questions are asked to determine how many telephone lines service the household. This allows us to determine selection probabilities for each household. Currently, these questions are asked of all households that report fishing and a 10% random sample of non-fishing households.
QP1 Not including cell phones, how many different telephone numbers are there in your home?
QP2 Of these {restore QP1} telephone numbers, how many are never used for talking and instead are always connected to a fax machine or computer modem?
QP3 Of the remaining {restore (QP1-QP2)} telephone numbers, how many are for business use only?
QP4 I calculate that you have {restore QP1-QP2-QP3} residential telephone lines. Does this sound right?
That concludes the questions that I have about your fishing. Thank you very much for your time and assistance.
If there are additional anglers in the household who still need to be interviewed, ask: “Now, may I please speak to: ”
If respondent indicates that one or more of the people listed are children, ask current respondent to continue answering the questions based on the child’s fishing activities.