NOAA representative Justin Hospital and the Hawaii-based Pacific Islands Fisheries Group officers met with the members of local fishing community at the Fiesta Resort & Spa Monday to brief them about the kind of information needed in the survey and why they are conducting it.
Officials of the Department of Lands and Natural Resources- Division of Fish and Wildlife also attended the meeting.
Hospital, in an interview after the meeting, said the survey will establish an important baseline to understand better the economic, social and cultural implication of fisheries management.
Right now, he said, NOAA does not have a lot of baseline information on fishing behavior — how people spend money on fishing, for example.
They also want to know what role fishing activities play in the community.
NOAA conducted a similar survey in the past but the information it has is now 15 to 20 years old, Hospital said.
“So we are updating our understanding of fisheries here in the Marianas,” he added.
Kendall Wong, Pacific Islands Fisheries Group treasurer, said what they are doing is an economic survey.
Their group, he said, is helping NOAA gather information on how much fishermen in the CNMI actually spend when they launch their boats.
Also, he said they want to know how much these fishermen contribute to the economy.
For example in Hawaii, where they conducted the survey last year, it was learned that fishermen spend an average of $161.79 on their bottom-fishing trip. Usually, 50 percent of this amount goes to boat fuel, 13 percent goes to bait, 13 percent to ice, 11 percent to food supply and 10 percent to truck fuel.
The number of bottom-fish trips in Hawaii averages 15 in 12 months.
“This is the first survey we are doing here on Saipan. We just did it on Guam this past weekend and now we are here on Saipan helping NOAA to do the survey,” Wong said.
The survey is estimated to be done in five months.
