Ethnographic Interviews of New England Groundfish Fishermen on Adaptation and Transition

The implementation of Amendment 16 to the fishery's Federal Management Plan in May 2010 implemented catch share management in the form of sectors. In addition, since 2012, there have been severe reductions in catch limits for key species, such as Atlantic cod. Fishery economic performance reports for the Northeast Multispecies Fishery produced by NMFS' Office of Science and Technology (the National Catch Share Report) and the NEFSC Social Science Branch (Final Reports on the Performance of the Northeast Multispecies (Groundfish) Fishery produced annually since 2010) evaluate the performance of commercial fishing vessels with a limited access groundfish permit that have remained active. However, little is known about the ways in which fishermen, particularly those who have traditionally actively targeted groundfish, are making decisions in response to changes in the biological and management conditions in the fishery. In addition, little is known about the economic and social impacts on fishermen who are no longer actively fishing or may be operating at a loss. The project portfolio contains text files of approximately 60 ethnographic interviews with current and former participants in New England's Northeast Multispecies Fishery (the groundfish fishery) conducted in 2013 and 2014 in several New England ports. Interviewees include commercial fishermen, managers of Northeast Multispecies Sectors, and other leaders in the commercial fishing community. Some interviews have been recorded and transcribed. In some cases, audio recording was not possible due to the noise level at the interview site; for these interviews, extensive notes were taken by the interviewer(s). Coding of these interviews in NVivo, a software designed to analyze qualitative information is ongoing. The project portfolio also contains an Excel spreadsheet that contains a table with selected characteristics for each interviewee (e.g. fisherman's age, marital status, number of dependents, years of fishing experience, etc.) (see InPort ID #27637).

This data collection improves understanding of the decision making process of groundfish fishermen, with a focus on the decision to continue or transition out of active groundfishing. It seeks to enable identification of patterns in decision making processes and adaptive responses across fishermen. The data collection also contains qualitative information about the specific economic and social impacts of catch shares and quota reductions on participants in the groundfish industry, and how management decisions may impact fishermen’s perceptions of available alternatives.

NEFSC Data Access Procedure:

1. Formal request in writing usually to the data owner/contact or Center Director;

2. Requester is contacted by data owner to review and verify the request content and details for data delivery options.

3. If data is confidential then owner will determine if the data may be released to the requester;

4. If data can be released, the data is downloaded and packaged for delivery electronically; or the requester may be directed to where the data is available online.

NEFSC Data Access Constraint:

If data is stored on an internal NEFSC network, the requester may not have direct access to query the data unless they are also authorized for network access.

Interviews are voluntary and therefore subject to selection bias. In addition, the information provided in the interviews is self-reported.

Data validation during data collection, Data validation during data entry, Post audits by internal editors, Database integrity constraints, Follow up with survey participants

not applicable

Archival of source data preserving unaltered collected data, Scheduled backups, Remote storage backups, Password protection

The project portfolio contains text files of approximately 60 ethnographic interviews with current and former participants in New England's Northeast Multispecies Fishery (the groundfish fishery) conducted in 2013 and 2014 in several New England ports. Interviewees include commercial fishermen, managers of Northeast Multispecies Sectors, and other leaders in the commercial fishing community. Some interviews have been transcribed and some interviews have been recorded. Coding of these interviews in NVivo, a software designed to analyze qualitative information, is ongoing. The project also contains a spreadsheet that summarizes selected characteristics for each interviewee (e.g. fisherman's age, marital status, number of dependents, years of fishing experience, etc.).