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Trip Interview Program (TIP)

Field biologists in the South Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico locations visit docks and fish houses to conduct interviews with commercial fishers. Information collected consists of catch, effort, and biostatistical data.

Pelagic Longline The Fisheries-Dependent Monitoring (FDM) program has nine field biologists involved in the Trip Interview Program (TIP), a cooperative effort with NOAA Fisheries' Southeast Fisheries Science Center. This is a shore-based sampling program, in which field biologists visit docks and fish houses to conduct interviews with commercial fishers. Information collected consists of catch, effort, and biostatistical data, such as length, weight, and biological samples (otoliths, spines, and soft tissue for mercury testing and DNA analysis). Estimates of the age distribution of fish in the population and how the distribution has changed over time is critical information for the assessment of fish populations. One of the benefits of this program is that it validates trip ticket data (catch and effort).

The following table is a quarterly (January – March 2008) summary of interviews and measured fish:

	January			February			March			Totals
Field Station
	Interviews	Fish Measured	Hard Parts	Interviews	Fish Measured	Hard Parts	Interviews	Fish Measured	Hard Parts	Interviews	Fish Measured	Hard Parts
Tequesta	15	373	11	12	410	17	14	351	0	41	1,134	28
Indian River	5	165	3	4	19	3	7	240	0	16	424	6
Jacksonville	9	522	0	14	547	0	*	*	*	23	1,069	0
Pensacola	5	443	33	11	259	91	10	787	53	26	1,489	177
Apalachicola	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*
St. Pete	18	507	507	23	587	587	16	505	505	57	1,599	1,599
Charlotte Harbor	7	138	123	8	122	115	6	130	117	21	390	355
Marathon	34	1,109	0	28	814	13	30	1,117	35	92	3,140	48
Cedar Key	5	483	0	4	407	0	3	176	30	12	1,066	30
Total	98	3,740	677	104	3,265	826	83	3,306	740	288	10,311	2,243

* Data not available. Hard parts = otoliths, spines, and biosamples.

FDM Biologist at a Fish House

The following table is the 2007 annual summary:

2007 Totals

Field Station

Interviews

Samples

Hard Parts

Tequesta

199

6,299

224

Indian River

63

1,626

51

Jacksonville

108

3,951

0

Pensacola

87

3,679

727

St. Petersburg

234

6,141

6,043

Charlotte Harbor

98

3,013

944

Marathon

254

5,952

181

Cedar Key

41

3,440

392

All

1,084

34,101

8,532

Hard parts = otoliths, spines, and biosamples.

Visit Southeast Fisheries Science Center to read more about the TIP program



	Fish and Wildlife Research Institute 100 Eighth Avenue SE St. Petersburg, Florida 33701-5020 PH: 727-896-8626