Natural resource economists working at Land Grant and Sea Grant institutions in the southeastern United States have initiated a multifaceted study of public preferences for integrated ocean observing systems (IOOS). This multi-year project involves numerous surveys targeting different populations in an attempt to understand how people access, use, and value specific types of IOOS-based information. One of these surveys seeks input from the owners, operators, and passengers of boats operating on coastal and marine waters of the United States. While this particular survey will eventually be sent out to a broad sample of vessel registry contacts, the team has approached ROFFSTM with a request to implement a parallel version of this study among Fishy Times subscribers. According to Rex Caffey, project team member from Louisiana State University (LSU), “the opportunity to replicate our coastal marine vessel survey within the ROFFS™ community is truly unique…we suspect it will provide input from a more advanced set of users than we expect to see in the general population.”
In the coming weeks, the Coastal Marine Vessel Survey will be distributed to Fishy Times subscribers via email. Rest assured that your participation is completely voluntary and anonymous. Your participation in this brief, 10-15-minute questionnaire will provide valuable input to the agencies involved in managing these important systems at the local, state, and federal level.
Please keep a look out for the survey email in the coming weeks. Thanks in advance for your consideration and time and please direct any specific questions about the project to: Rex Caffey, LSU Center for Natural Resource Economics & Policy, rcaffey@lsu.edu, 225-578-2393.
