Why is NOAA Fisheries redesigning its angler surveys?
In recent years, fisheries managers, as well as partners in the recreational fishing community, increasingly raised concerns about the timeliness and accuracy of NOAA Fisheries’ primary angler survey program, the Marine Recreational Fisheries Statistics Surveys (often called MRFSS). NOAA Fisheries responded by requesting a thorough review by the National Academy of Sciences’ National Research Council in 2005. In April 2006, a group of independent scientists announced their findings, recommending the agency and its state partners dramatically redesign the angler survey program. In addition, when Congress reauthorized the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act in January 2007, it echoed many of the council’s recommendations and included a provision requiring a new national saltwater angler registry. For these reasons, the nearly 30-year-old MRFSS is being phased out as a thoroughly updated angler survey is phased in. The new Marine Recreational Information Program will
