THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES OF SCIENCES, ENGINEERING, AND MEDICINE
Division on Earth and Life Studies
Ocean Studies Board
Committee on Data and Management Strategies for Recreational Fisheries with Annual Catch Limits
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Congressional Briefing
Wednesday, August 4, 2021 – 11:00 a.m.
via Zoom
on
Data and Management Strategies for Recreational Fisheries with Annual Catch Limits
This new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine was requested by Congress in P.L. 115-405, Modernizing Recreational Fisheries Management Act of 2018. NOAA’s Fisheries' Marine Recreational Information Program (MRIP) monitors recreational catch through a variety of in-person, telephone, mail-in, and other surveys. NOAA Fisheries' management of recreational catch also must take into account annual catch limits (ACLs) established to prevent overfishing for all managed species in federal waters.
While MRIP has worked to improve recreational catch surveys over the past decade, the surveys were never designed to meet the demands of in-season management of ACLs. In some cases, estimates of harvest have triggered accountability measures such as early season closures and reductions in future recreational ACLs, which have been a source of contention with the recreational fishing community. This report presents approaches for optimizing MRIP data and complementary data for in-season management and considers alternatives for managing recreational fisheries with ACLs to better serve both social and economic management objectives.
This briefing was for members of Congress and congressional staff only. The report was publicly released on August 5, 2021 and can be found, in its entirety, on the Web site of the National Academies Press.