Minimum Data Elements

All minimum standard data elements listed in Table 4 of the FIN Program Design Document(FPDD) must be collected by all partners conducting recreational data collection programs, unless otherwise noted. All catch and effort data should be collected at the trip-level with possible resolution for each area fished. Effort data for the private/rental and shore modes of fishing should be collected through a telephone survey with random sampling of households. Specific data elements to be collected through the telephone survey are listed in Table 4 of the FPDD. Catch data for the private/rental and shore modes of fishing should be collected through an access-site intercept survey. States should increase their involvement in conducting this survey. Specific data elements to be collected through the access-site intercept survey are listed in Table 4 of the FPDD . The unique identifier for trip data will be the date of return, sampler number, record number, and individual identifier.

Ref: Program Design Document, pg. 22

Table 4. Minimum data elements for recreational data collection. (I = information collected through the intercept survey, T = information collected through the telephone survey, B = information collected through both the intercept and telephone surveys).