Graying of the Fleet in Alaska’s Fisheries Survey Data, 2015

• Main Authors: Carothers, Courtney, Coleman, Jesse
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: Axiom Data Science 2020
• Subjects: Fairbanks; Archipelago; Kodiak; Alaska
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.24431/rw1k45x; https://search.dataone.org/#view/10.24431/rw1k45x

The Graying of the Fleet Research project was conducted to understand factors that have lead to an increase in the average age of commercial fishery participants over the past several decades. In addition to collecting interview data from young and veteran fishermen and community leaders in the Bristol Bay and Kodiak Archipelago regions of Alaska, the study sought to understand the aspirations and experiences of youth in the regions as they related to the commercial fishing industry in their communities. Data in this collection are survey responses given by seventh through twelfth grade students in the communities of Togiak, Dillingham, Kokhanok, and the Bristol Bay Borough (including South Naknek, Naknek, and King Salmon) in Bristol Bay and Kodiak, Ouzinkie, and Old Harbor in the Kodiak Archipelago. The survey, administered in the spring of 2015, was designed to elicit youth perceptions of the commercial fishing industry, their involvement, their family ties, and their desire to engage in the commercial fisheries near their communities. It also asked students about their educational and career ambitions for the future, demographic attributes, and feelings about their home communities. Responses were collected on a five-page paper survey administered by project staff or local assistants. Data were entered verbatim by project staff into Excel spreadsheets. Raw categorical and text response data were coded according to a pre-defined and inductive coding protocol. All raw and coded data are contained within the archived files. The files contain, in addition to raw and coded data (NPRB_1323_Survey_Response_Data.csv), counts of responses aggregated by community for all survey questions (NPRB_1323_Survey_Responses_ Aggregated_Data.csv), the list of codes used to code responses (NPRB_1323_Survey_Response_Data_Codes.csv), and other data configurations used for indexing in creation of the aggregated data file (NPRB_1323_Survey_Response_Question_Text.csv). This dataset was derived from a larger set of interviews with residents of the Bristol Bay and Kodiak Archipelago, Alaska, on fishing, community, and the graying of the fleet, 2014-2015. Raw audio files and transcripts have been archived at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks. Contact the Principal Investigator for more information. This dataset was generated as part of NPRB Project 1323.