The nation’s leading recreational fishing and marine conservation organizations recently…
The nation’s leading recreational fishing and marine conservation organizations recently released a white paper on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) findings that its Marine Recreational Information Program – Fishing Effort Survey (MRIP-FES) may be overestimating recreational catch and effort data by 30-40%.
The Marine Recreational Information Program is a NOAA program that provides estimates of recreational fishing catches and trips that occur from Maine to Mississippi and Hawaii. These data are used to assess and manage state and federal fisheries in the Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico, and Hawaii.
A recent pilot study conducted by NOAA found that MRIP-FES may be overestimating recreational catch and effort data by 30-40%. This is the third time in 13 years serious issues have been uncovered in NOAA’s recreational fishery data program.
Many states have demonstrated the capability of developing survey programs to estimate recreational catch and effort data with more precision than MRIP. NOAA needs to work with all states to identify the best steps forward including the opportunity to transition some or all recreational data collection to the states and how to best provide support (i.e., funding) to states that lead data collection improvements.
Some states may not be ready to transition to their own data collection program for estimates of effort. For those states, NOAA must collaborate with states and stakeholders on needed reforms to recreational data collection, many of which were identified in a recent National Academy of Sciences report. At the same time, NOAA must also pursue meaningful investments in the development and implementation of recreational management improvements.
“NOAA has had multiple chances to fix management of recreational fisheries, and it has failed every time. A ready alternative exists in states that have already taken steps to develop better recreational data than the feds have ever had,” said Jeff Angers, president of the Center for Sportfishing Policy. “It’s time to stop making the same mistakes, stop wasting taxpayer money, and stop causing chaos in recreational fisheries management and coastal communities. It’s time for all parties to work together to properly fund state efforts to manage recreational fisheries.”
“Yet another major revision to the federal recreational data collection system is upon us, and it should bring a realization that NOAA is just not capable of doing this job,” said Ted Venker, conservation director of Coastal Conservation Association. “At best we are looking at several more years of questionable revisions, recalculations, and recalibrations based on a suspect data system that has never proven it can produce accurate information. This is no way to manage a public resource. It would be irresponsible to continue down this road rather than exploring and supporting state-based options to better manage the recreational sector wherever feasible.”
Here in North Carolina, the state legislature recently passed House Bill 600, Regulatory Reform Act of 2023, which contained a provision charging the NC Wildlife Resources Commission and Division of Marine Fisheries with the development of a state-managed recreational reporting app. North Carolina is taking steps to join all West Coast states, “who rejected the federal data system decades ago and collect all recreational angling data with their own systems,” and every Gulf Coast state where they have “developed recreational data programs at least for their red snapper fisheries that are much more hands-on than anything NOAA could implement.”
North Carolina anglers who have expressed concern for years about the inefficiencies of the MRIP system will now have the opportunity to be leaders in the development of our own state-managed reporting program. Hopefully these efforts will provide a path for anglers to break out of what has become a never-ending series of crises and conflicts with the federal fisheries management system.
