COMMERCE
Subscriber Services
Classified Ads
Subscribe
Advertise
NEWS
This Month
Editorial
Letters
F/V Safety
Past Issues
ABOUT US
Contact Us
Latest Issue
Subscribe
History
MORE CONTENT
CFN Archives
Links
Each month exclusively in the PRINT edition of CFN
Along the Coast
Ask the Lobster Doc
Bearin’s
Classifieds
Coming Events
Editorial
Enforcement Report
FISH SAFE
Fleet Additions
Letters
Lobster Market Report
New Boats
News Catch
Quahog Market Report
|
Commercial Fisheries News
Volume 33 Number 8
April 2006
GMRI initiates socioeconomic survey of lobstermen
ROCKPORT, ME - Gulf of Maine lobstermen may soon be getting a phone call from someone asking questions about their business operation and their financial dependence on the lobster fishery.
Don’t be surprised, and don’t hang up. It’s not the IRS.
Rather it is a survey to gather socioeconomic information on the lobster fishery. The Gulf of Maine Research Institute (GMRI) in partnership with an independent research firm, Market Decisions, which conducts the phone interviews, is doing the survey.
“Despite being the most valuable fishery in the Northeast, there isn’t much documentation of the lobster fishery’s role in supporting families and coastal communities,” said Laura Taylor Singer of GMRI, a marine research and education institute in Portland. “But they may be affected by potential changes in the fishery.”
Singer was speaking to the audience at a well-attended seminar at the Maine Fishermen’s Forum on March 4. The session focused on how the survey was designed, the information being collected, and how it will be used.
The overriding message was to encourage lobstermen to participate.
GMRI has undertaken the survey to better understand the Gulf of Maine lobster industry in terms of its employment statistics, how vulnerable the individual business are to a decline in landings, and how management changes may affect various sectors of the industry and the communities in which they are located.
A steering committee that includes representatives of the area’s lobster associations and fishery managers worked with GMRI to develop the survey questions. GMRI economist Dan Holland led the effort.
The phone interviews, which were expected to take about 20 minutes each, were scheduled to happen in March and April, before the start of the busy fishing season, Singer said.
Market Decisions, a bonded market research firm, will have its initial report available for review by GMRI and the steering committee in September. The report will be taken to industry meetings in November and December, “for a reality check,” Singer said. Then updated by January 2007.
Survey method
The survey will do a random sampling of 600 lobstermen in Maine, New Hampshire, and the north shore of Massachusetts who fish in lobster management Areas 1 and 3.
The Maine coast has been further divided into three strata: eastern, mid, and western areas.
It will concentrate on sampling active permit holders, though, with Maine’s license system and lack of trip reporting requirements there was no way to cull out latent licenses.
A shortened version of the survey will be used, however, for respondents who answer “No” to the early question of whether they land more than 1,000 pounds of lobsters in a season.
The survey topics include questions about: the makeup of the household; the permit holder’s educational training, health care, and retirement planning; the business operation generally; financial dependence on lobstering; and other issues.
Singer emphasized that all responses are confidential. Market Decisions does not release individual responses and individual information will not be provided to GMRI or government agencies.
Audience concerns
While people from the audience voiced support for having good economic information about the lobster industry, they were concerned that the phone survey would create an inaccurate picture.
“This will just come back and bite us in the butt,” was how it was put by one lobsterman.
Several questioned the implications if many callers, especially if they were all full-time lobstermen, refused to participate.
That alone could bias the information gathered and reduce confidence in the accuracy of the findings, said Steve Robbins III.
“It is important that the right people are surveyed,” he said.
Robin Alden, executive director of Penobscot East Resource Center in Stonington, asked how the survey was randomized.
“The role of the lobster industry to a community’s well-being could differ greatly between eastern Maine and the north shore of Massachusetts,” she said. “How does the survey account for that difference?”
Tim Harkins wanted to know why businesses providing infrastructure support weren’t included in the survey.
Holland replied that funding was the limiting factor. And, added GMRI’s Togue Brawn, the Bureau of Labor Statistics can provide some of that data.
Singer said GMRI would indicate confidence levels in areas of the survey and the report would include caveats if participation becomes an issue in any of the survey strata.
“That’s the reason we are going back to industry with a draft report,” she said. “To get reaction to the findings.”
Steering committee member Dave Casoni of the Massachusetts Lobstermen’s urged lobstermen to take part in the survey if they are called.
Pointing to the downsizing in the groundfish industry in Massachusetts, he said, “We never documented what used to be here and is now gone until it was too late. Some of that loss was because of management.”
Bob Baines of the Maine Lobstermen’s Association is also a steering committee member. With the effort reduction discussions that are underway for the lobster fishery, he said it will be helpful to know who’s below the radar.
“How do you fix the problem without knowing who is affected?” he said.
Susan Jones
back to story list
|
|
Tell us what you think.
