NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — August 10, 2012 — The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration today mailed a detailed economic survey to 1,700 fishing boat owners in the Northeast.
The survey is intended to collect information on the true operational costs of commercial fishing.
Participation in the survey is voluntary and the responses will be kept confidential, according to Tammy Murphy of NOAA’s Social Sciences Branch at the Northeast Fisheries Science Center in Woods Hole, who is leading the effort.
“Collecting this information is absolutely essential to showing how fisheries, fishermen and fishing communities are faring as management and fishery stock conditions change,” Murphy wrote in a press release.
Last conducted in 2009, the survey has been redesigned with the help of fishermen and covers all the region’s fisheries, gear types and vessel sizes in the Northeast to determine how their costs may vary.
Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard Times.