The data provided by the members of the Florida Saltwater Fishing Panel (FSFP) will be used to further our understanding of many aspects of saltwater fishing in Florida. We will interpret your responses to gain insight into the viewpoints of FSFP members regarding saltwater fishing and fisheries policies and management, to gauge the economic impact of saltwater fishing in Florida, and to more fully understand the efforts and results of time spent fishing. The findings based on our study of the provided data will be offered to members of the FSFP via this website.

Michigan State University, in cooperation with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, has strict protocols to protect the confidentiality of persons who respond to our surveys. We go to great lengths to protect the confidentiality of our respondents. When you submit your responses to a survey, we will keep them in a file separated from your email address so there will be no way to identify which responses were provided by you.

While we hope that you will decide to answer all of the questions on each FSFP survey, your participation is voluntary and you are under no obligation to respond to any survey or to any particular question. We will regularly send out reminders to encourage more responses. If at any time you wish to be removed from the FSFP member list, please follow the link provided on the home page to discontinue your FSFP membership.

A human subject of research is an individual from whom an investigator obtains data by interaction or intervention or about whom the researcher obtains confidential information. Under the regulations, research is defined as a formal investigation designed to develop and contribute to generalizable knowledge.

Federal and University regulations require that all research projects involving human subjects and materials of human origin be reviewed and approved by an IRB (Internal Review Board) before initiation.

If you have any questions regarding the Panel, please contact the project researchers at Michigan State University:

Ed Mahoney, Ph.D.
Director of RMRC
Michigan State University
131 Natural Resources Building
East Lansing, MI 48824-1222
Email: fishing@msu.edu Phone: 517-432-0270