Harvest and Catch Reporting

Accurate data reflecting hunter harvest and angler catch of various species is critical to effective fish and wildlife management. Fish and wildlife managers depend on such data to precisely monitor the populations of different species and to set regulations accordingly. This process ensures the health and sustainability of the species and the continuing conservation of the resource in general.

Responsive Management routinely works with fish and wildlife agencies across the country to determine hunter harvest and angler catch rates, the locations where hunters and anglers harvest game and catch fish, and the equipment they use to do so. Many of these surveys are conducted through long-term contracts for ongoing survey research—long-term harvest survey clients include the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, Wildlife Resources Division; the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission; the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources; the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources; and the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks. For all harvest and catch survey projects, Responsive Management works closely with the client agency to ensure the best and most accurate survey design possible.

All of Responsive Management’s harvest and catch surveys entail scientific, detailed questionnaires measuring the number of hunters/anglers, days hunted/fished, per-day harvest/catch, per-hunter/angler harvest/catch, and days per hunter/angler, as well as maps displaying breakdowns by management unit, water body, county, and/or region (statewide data is also provided).

While agencies use different methods to implement harvest and catch surveys (include telephone surveys, mail questionnaires, and hunter/angler self-reporting), Responsive Management generally recommends that these surveys be conducted via telephone interviews with respondents, due to certain disadvantages of mail and web-based harvest/catch questionnaires.

Mail surveys may introduce bias into a study in certain ways. Respondents who are more interested in the subject matter of the study are more likely to respond, resulting in skewed results. In other words, respondents with a vested interest in the survey will choose to complete the survey, while other individuals may not; in a mail survey, researchers have little “power of persuasion” to encourage a completed survey because there is no direct interaction between the respondent and the researcher. Many hunter harvest and angler catch surveys conducted by mail include specific directions encouraging respondents to complete and return the questionnaire even if they were unsuccessful or did not hunt/fish. Such instructions clearly address a group of respondents who are less likely to return the survey. In a telephone survey, those who hunted or fished but were not successful can be quantified more readily because interviewers are often able to persuade these individuals to answer a few quick questions over the telephone.

Web-based (i.e., online) surveys are sometimes selected because they are considered more cost-effective. However, web-based surveys must be approached with caution. As research has shown, web-based surveys tend to attract “younger, predominately Anglo respondents, and may
suffer from higher non-response rates, more item omissions, and more negatively-valenced responses than telephone surveys” (see Roster, C., Rogers, R., Albaum, G., & Klein, D., “Application of a Paradigm to Compare Sample Data: Web vs. Telephone Survey Results,” in Proceedings of Western Decision Sciences Institute, 2003). Although web-based surveys cam be effective when surveying closed populations of respondents, such as agency employees and other professionals with guaranteed access to the internet, they do not accurately reflect the opinions and attitudes of the general population because many households still lack internet access.

Telephone surveys remain the most accurate and reliable method of obtaining data that is representative of the general population. Due to the near universality of telephone ownership and minimized respondent burden, surveys conducted via telephone yield higher response rates,
increase the representativeness of the sample, and reduce bias. Further, Responsive Management obtains cellular telephone numbers to reach elusive populations and further ensure the representativeness of the sample population.

Recent examples of Responsive Management’s harvest and catch surveys include the following: