Adjusting for undercoverage of access‐points in creel surveys with fewer overflights. Issue 4 (25th June 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Béliveau, Audrey; Lockhart, Richard A.; Schwarz, Carl J.; Arndt, Steven K.
• Is Part Of: Biometrics. Volume 71:Issue 4(2015)
• Page Start: 1050
• Page End: 1059
• Publication Date: 2015-06-25
• Subjects: Aerial‐access -- Creel survey -- Kootenay Lake -- Optimal allocation -- Two‐phase -- Undercoverage; Biometry -- Periodicals; 570.15195
• DOI: 10.1111/biom.12335
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0006-341X

Abstract

Summary: Creel surveys are used in recreational fisheries to estimate angling effort, catch, and harvest. Aerial‐access creel surveys rely on two components: (1) a ground component in which fishing parties returning from their trips are interviewed at some access‐points of the fishery; (2) an aerial component in which the number of fishing parties is counted. A common practice is to sample fewer aerial survey days than ground survey days. This is thought by practitioners to reduce the cost of the survey, but there is a lack of sound statistical methodology for this case. In this article, we propose various estimation methods to handle this situation and evaluate their asymptotic properties from a design‐based perspective. We also propose formulas for the optimal allocation of the effort between the ground and the aerial portion of the survey, for given costs and budget. A simulation study investigates the performance of the estimators. Finally, we apply our methods to data from an annual Kootenay Lake survey (Canada).