What is the National Saltwater Angler
Registry?
The National Saltwater Angler Registry is part of a
new federal recreational fishing data program called the Marine
Recreational Information Program (MRIP). The MRIP is a
NOAA initiative which was established in the Magnuson-Stevens
Fishery Management and Conservation Act of 2006. The main
goal of the MRIP (and the Registry) is to improve the collection,
analysis, and use of recreational saltwater fishing
information.
NOAA exempts anglers from federal registration if
they are licensed in states that have a system to provide complete
information on their saltwater anglers to the national
registry. Florida residents are NOT required to
register because Florida provides such information to the
national registry. Saltwater recreational anglers and
spearfishers who are not exempt from the requirement need to
register to fish in federal waters beginning January 1, 2010.
The Florida resident recreational shoreline license
exemption was the single item preventing Florida from being exempt
in the current federal system, but during the 2009 Florida
Legislative session, this exemption was repealed and the annual
resident shoreline fishing license was created.
For more information:
What other changes are occurring as part of
the MRIP?
For almost 30 years, the Marine Recreational
Fisheries Statistics Surveys (MRFSS) has been used to gather
information on recreational anglers' catches and fishing
effort. Through the years, the way people fish and the number
of people fishing has changed, and recently stakeholders have
raised concerns about the timeliness of the MRFSS and the accuracy
of information it produces. When Congress reauthorized the
Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act in 2007,
they established the Marine Recreational Information Program (MRIP)
to replace the MRFSS and improve the collection, analysis, and use
of recreational saltwater fishing information. To achieve
this goal, the MRIP is in the process of testing and implementing
several key changes.
The MRIP is modernizing its surveys and how the
data will be handled. The main questions the survey will ask
are:
- Who is fishing?
- What are they catching?
- Where and when are they catching it?
- How many do they catch?
These questions are being refined to obtain more
precise and accurate answers. In addition, the questions in
the surveys will be standardized and collected regionally to
maximize their accuracy. Licensed saltwater anglers will be
surveyed nationwide, but coastal households will be contacted as
well.
The MRIP is developing several new programs to
obtain data about a broader range of fisheries. One program
will determine the difference between catch rates of fish on
private-access and public-access fishing trips. The MRIP will
also more closely estimate the actual discarded catch from
recreational fishing trips. Another new program will include
more details about highly migratory species and for-hire vessels,
in an effort to realize a more comprehensive view of these
fisheries. Finally, the MRIP will establish common standards
and protocols for managing all the data that is collected.
Click
here for a list of FAQs about the MRIP.
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