Survey of non-charter boat recreational fishing in the U.S. Virgin Islands

A telephone survey was conducted by the U.S. Virgin Islands Division of Fish and Wildlife from July- September 1986 to evaluate the efficacy of telephone surveys as a sampling technique for obtaining reliable fisheries data, and to collect fisheries data for the recreational non-charter boat fishery around the Virgin Islands. Results suggest that telephone surveys by themselves may provide biased data on recreational fishing in the Virgin Islands. Additional methods, such as mail surveys and limited creel surveys could be used to supplement the fisheries data gathered through telephone surveys. The results of this survey indicate that during the mid 1980s 10.8% of the residents of the Virgin Islands ( similar to 10,800) fished recreationally (i.e., non-charter boat anglers). These anglers made modest demands of the resources (effort: 19,200 manhours/yr;