The annual economic survey of federal Gulf shrimp permit holders : implementation and descriptive results for 2008

This report presents descriptive results of the Annual Economic Survey of Federal Gulf Shrimp Permit Holders (OMB Control # 0648-0476) for the calendar year 2008, and documents the survey’s implementation and preparation of data. The data collection was designed by the NOAA Fisheries Southeast Fisheries Science Center Social Science Research Group to track the financial and economic status and performance by vessels holding a federal moratorium permit for harvesting shrimp in the Gulf of Mexico. A two page, self-administered mail survey collected total annual costs broken out into seven categories and auxiliary economic data. Since this was the third year for the survey, a section compares results from 2008, 2007, and 2006. The survey is repeated annually. The first technical memorandum (NMFS-SEFSC-584) is intended as the central report to describe the data collection methodology and should be consulted for details about the survey design. Changes made to the 2007 survey are documented in a second technical memorandum (NMFS-SEFSC-590).