Challenge:

Our ocean and coastal resources are threatened by a growing number of proposed activities and pressures, from energy to commercial and recreational fishing. The TRCP strives to balance the multiple and competing uses while conserving the vital resources found within our oceans.

Strategy:

The TRCP has brought together a group of recreational fishing, environmental and conservation groups to help guide public policy surrounding saltwater angling and marine fisheries conservation. Known as the Fish Collaborative, the group is responsible for developing common-sense policy solutions to issues facing marine recreational fishing.  The TRCP then engages in strategic projects that address key issues and injects the voice of the recreational angling community into the policy process.

Action:

With the help of the Fish Collaborative, the TRCP convened a panel of marine scientists and fisheries professionals from across the country to discuss recreational saltwater-fishing data-collection and marine resources conservation. The recommendations developed by this Blue Ribbon Panel are based on examples drawn from a range of alternative marine data-collection systems, including research and methods currently used in non-federal fisheries and by other natural resource management programs. The Blue Ribbon Panel produced a set of recommendations designed to enhance NOAA’s Marine Recreational Information Program.

The MRIP was created to better assess how many trips recreational anglers take within a season, what types of fish they are catching and where fishing takes place. Gathering this data helps NOAA better allocate fish stocks so that the most up-to-date economic impact of all angling sectors – including commercial, recreational and charter – is considered in determining harvest limits for each fishery. 

Earlier this year the TRCP held meetings in Pensacola, FL; Gulfport, MS; and New Orleans, LA in order to gather input from recreational fisherman and businesses affected by the 2010, Deepwater Horizon oil spill.  That input became the basis for the report: Gulf Spill Recreational Fishing Response Group: Recommendations for Resource Recovery.  This report reflects input gathered directly from saltwater recreational angling interests in the region as well as from experts including academics and state and federal officials associated with recreational fisheries management in the region.  The recommendations outline the consensus priorities for investments participants believe should be made to restore the quantity and quality of recreational fishing opportunities in the Gulf of Mexico that existed before the spill.

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