Aerial Creel Survey of The Detroit River

The summary for the Aerial Creel Survey of The Detroit River grant is detailed below. This summary states who is eligible for the grant, how much grant money will be awarded, current and past deadlines, Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) numbers, and a sampling of similar government grants. Verify the accuracy of the data FederalGrants.com provides by visiting the webpage noted in the Link to Full Announcement section or by contacting the appropriate person listed as the Grant Announcement Contact. If any section is incomplete, please visit the website for the Geological Survey, which is the U.S. government agency offering this grant.

Aerial Creel Survey of The Detroit River: It is essential that fisheries management decisions be based on a sound empirical knowledge of the history, current status, and dynamics of fish communities and fisheries. The most fundamental requirements for sound management of recreational fisheries are knowledge of the response of fish stocks to fishing and of the contributions of various fish stocks to the fisheries. This knowledge can be obtained via creel surveys which estimate recreational fishing effort, catch, and catch composition. Recreational catch and effort data have been utilized in mathematical models which depict fishery dynamics and these models form the basis for development of Great Lakes and inland fishery management plans.

Currently, there is a lack of recreational data for the Detroit River boat fishery. To address this lack, the Michigan DNR will conduct an access-site creel survey, in conjunction with the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, during the 2015 open-water season (March – September), to estimate effort, catch and harvest, catch and harvest rates, and catch composition for Detroit River fisheries. Because access to the Detroit River fishery is so diverse the optimal method for collecting effort data is to employ fixed-wing aircraft to fly over the river and count fishing boats. MIDNR is requesting funding needed to employ these aerial contractors and to adjust software to collect air flight creel data.

Objectives:
1) To obtain a record of sport fishing effort, catch and harvest, catch and harvest rates, and catch composition for fisheries in the Detroit River.

2) To provide consistent protocols and data collection methods, program oversight, and timely data analysis of recreational fisheries statistics for the Detroit River boat fishery to Fisheries Division managers, outside agency biologists and the interested public.

Methods.
The angler survey will be conducted from March 15 through September 15, 2015. The river will break into two sections, upper and lower, and only one section will be creeled during any one survey day. Boat anglers will be counted by aerial contractors and be interviewed by a creel clerk at the end of their fishing trip at access sites along at the upper and lower river sections.

One Michigan Department of Natural Resources creel clerk will work 40-hours per week to complete the survey using a progressive roving-access points design (Lockwood et al. 1999). Two weekend days and three randomly selected weekdays will be sampled each week. Only boat anglers will be counted and interviewed. If possible, non-fishing recreational boats will also be counted to obtain information on non-angling, recreational boat use in the Detroit River.

Two types of data will be collected: angler interviews for fish catch and effort information, and counts of boat anglers for effort. Clerks will interview each individual angler or boat that returns to the access sites during the scheduled shift. Date, time and interview site will be recorded for all interviews. When the boater did not fish, this will be recorded on the form as a non-fishing party and the interview will be ended. When fishing occurs, anglers will be queried for where on the river they fished, how long they fished, what species of fish they fished for, the numbers (by species) of fish they caught and numbers kept, and the number of fishing trips they made or intended to make that day. Fishing effort will be determined through boat counts made by a fixed-wing aircraft. One count of boats will be made each survey day. Data will be entered into a specialized data entry application.

The starting point for counts and interviews will alternate following a randomized count and interview schedule. One eight-hour shift (between 6:00 am and 4:00 pm or between 10:30 am and 10:00 pm) will be worked each sampling day, with starting and ending times varying each month with daylight period.

Estimates of three measures of fishing effort: angler-hours, angler-trips and angler-days will be generated from this angler survey. Other estimates generated from data collected during this creel survey will include: number of fish harvested (caught and kept by anglers), number of fish caught and released, and species-specific catch rates. Standard mathematical formulas for creel surveys will be used to calculate all estimates (Lockwood et al. 1999). Uncertainty estimates for all catch and effort estimates will be defined as two standard deviations of their mean estimates (2 times the square root of the variance for an estimate).

Planned Products and Dissemination of Research Results
Products produced will be estimates of sport fishing effort, catch and harvest, catch and harvest rates, and catch composition for the Detroit River boat fishery. Also produced will be summaries of demographic information about Detroit River boat anglers and biological information from the fish they harvest.

Angler survey data from this study will be used by State biologists, other agencies (e.g., GLFC, Sea Grant, and USGS), universities (Fisheries scientists, Sociologists, Economists), public and stakeholders (e.g., Anglers, Angling Organizations, Charter Operators, and Media). Uses for the data include: stocking evaluation, regulation evaluation, quota / total allowable catch development, status and trends evaluation etc.