SWFSC: West Coast North Pacific Albacore Fishery Economic Data Collection

File Name: 155873200155873200

Dear West Coast Albacore Fishery Participant,

Thank you for opening this letter! The West Coast Albacore Fishery is an important and valuable fishery across the region, and we need your help to provide fishery managers with much-needed cost and earnings data. This information will enable us to improve studies of the economic performance of the West Coast Albacore Fishery and characterize the operating costs across the industry. It will also help fishery managers evaluate how fishery participants may be impacted. For example, when managers consider fishery management actions, they need to examine your information to fully understand potential economic impacts to your fishery and your livelihood. We currently lack this information.

We estimate that it will take approximately 65 minutes to answer the questions. To participate you will likely need access to your cost accounting files for years 2022, 2023, and/or 2024 as well as your purchase history for items such as fuel, oil, and food. In addition, by completing this survey, we will enter your name into a drawing to win a $200 gift certificate to a marine supply store of your choice. Three winners will be announced by June 1, 2025.

It is important to understand that participating in this survey is voluntary, and any information submitted to NOAA Fisheries in response to this survey will be considered confidential and protected by law. Information collected from all participants will be summarized in a publicly available report; however, no confidential data submitted by any participant will be publicly released in a manner which allows the identification of an individual’s proprietary information.

There are three ways to participate in our survey:

1. NOAA Fisheries developed an enclosed, mail-in, survey to fill out and mail back to us with the self-addressed envelope. We would like you to provide all information to the best of your knowledge (real numbers or estimates). If you do not know the answer, leave it blank and move on.

2. We’ve also developed an online survey option to enter data through a secure portal. To access the survey please go to: XXXXX and enter your personal code XXXXX. Instructions for how to enter your information will be provided on the webpage.

3. In addition, we’ve set dates to attend in-person surveys at the following locations along the West Coast:

San Diego, CA (ENTER DATE)

Bodega Bay (ENTER DATE)

Crescent City, CA (ENTER DATE)

Newport, OR (ENTER DATE)

Astoria, OR (ENTER DATE)

Westport, WA (ENTER DATE)

To sign up for an in-person interview, please email Brett Wiedoff at bwiedoff@gmail.com and Stephen Stohs at Stephen.Stohs@noaa.gov by (ENTER DATE). Instructions on how to participate in an in-person meeting will be provided after scheduling.