Albert W. Green

Estimates were made of the percent of sport-boat interviews and retained fish that would be missed by terminating weekend surveys early when no anglers have been seen prior to specified times. Surveys could be terminated at 1200 hours during the summer and not miss more than 2% of the total interviews within any 1 bay system. Fall, winter, and spring surveys could be terminated at 1400 hours and no more than 4% of the total interviews would be missed. The percent of surveys that could be terminated early is highest in winter (37%-67%) and lowest in summer and fall (2%-10%). The percent of...

Standardized fishery independent gill net and bag seine monitoring programs in 8 Texas bays from 1976 to 1982 demonstrated significant differences among annual indices of relative abundances of spotted seatrout (Cynoscion nebulosus), red drum (Sciaenops ocellatus), black drum (Pogonias cromis), sheepshead (Archosargus probatocephalus), southern flounder (Paralichthys lethostigma), and Atlantic croaker (Micropogonias undulatus) populations. These programs provide a more complete assessment of the fish populations than do commercial landings data because of the selective fishing inherent in...

Rising costs and increasing demands for limited marine resources dictate that managers monitor the status and utilization of these resources efficiently. Seventy-two percent to 100% of aU weekend sport boat anglers completing a trip from 0700-1800 hours could be interviewed from 1000-1800 hours in Texas bay systems. A comparison of mean daily trailer boat counts suggest that optimum estimates of fishing pressure within a year can be made by stratifying data into 2 periods (13 November to 8 April; 9 April to 12 November).

The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department mailed 2 different survey questionnaires to 5,000 randomly selected households to estimate the number of residents fishing and the ways they fished in Texas from 1 September 1978 through 31 August 1979. The questionnaires in this survey were identical except one sub-group (1000) asked household members questions regarding their possession of a valid fishing license. Differences in responses to these 2 questionnaires were used to assess response biases. Estimates of total license sales (a known statistic) from survey data showed a strong positive bias...

The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department conducted 2 harvest surveys by mail during 1976, I sampled currently licensed hunters and the other sampled hunters that were licensed I year previously. Both surveys requested information concerning hunting activity during the current season. A portion of the currently licensed hunters who did not return questionnaires were contacted by telephone to adjust for non-response bias. The survey sampling out-of-date hunters was not adjusted for non-res pone bias. The harvest and related hunting statistics estimated from regression models developed from...

Spotted seatrout (Cynoscion nebulosus) and red drum (Sciaenops ocellata) populations in Texas bays were randomly sampled with 183 m long gill nets November 1975 through March 1976 and November 19'76 through March 1977. Catch rates in areas closed to commercial netting for spotted seatrout were about twice as high as those from areas open to netting. There was no difference between the mean total length of spotted scatrout from closed areas and trout from open areas. Closed areas produced about twice as many red drum as open areas. No generalizatilln could be made about the size of red drum...