Information for Management and Science Partners
High Quality, Maximum Flexibility
The Marine Recreational Information Program, or MRIP, is a new data collection and analysis initiative created by NOAA Fisheries in partnership with state agencies, the marine science and stock assessment communities, recreational anglers, and other stakeholders. Its ultimate purpose is to help ensure the long-term sustainability of the nation’s fisheries. It is designed to ensure high quality data while also maximizing local control and flexibility.
- MRIP avoids a one-size-fits-all approach to gathering data by creating an interlocking system of seven regional surveys that can best take into account local factors.
- To ensure consistency and comparability, each regional survey included in the MRIP “toolbox” will adhere to a set of national standards that define minimum data elements, survey coverage, and best practices for data collection and analysis. Ongoing research projects will help refine these national standards and identify other potential information sources.
- Regional data partners may decide on their own to extend coverage beyond the standard minimums for geographic scope and species included, use supplemental surveys to improve estimates for infrequently caught species, or include other add-ons to meet regional data needs.
Toward More Trusted Data
While it is impossible to ask each and every one of America’s approximately 15 million recreational anglers about their fishing habits, MRIP’s improved survey methods and other data collection systems will provide more timely and detailed estimates than ever before available of the number of fishing trips anglers take and how many fish they are catching.
MRIP is designed to address two critical needs. The first is to provide the level of detailed, timely data that fisheries managers require to keep pace with emerging management requirements like annual catch limits; appropriately balance the increasing needs we place our oceans;, and fairly allocate access to limited shared resources.
The second is to address head-on stakeholder concerns about the reliability and credibility of recreational fishing data. We are doing so not only through improved survey and data collection methodology. We are also changing the way we interact with managers, fishermen, charter boat owners and captains, coastal residents, and other ocean advocates and enthusiasts.
MRIP begins and ends with the realization that numbers do not exist in vacuum. The data we gather and report, and the way in which we go about collecting and sharing that data, have real impacts on people’s lives and livelihoods, and on the oceans we are all jointly committed to preserving for generations to come.
Similar Look, Different Approach
This basic survey approach to estimating recreational catch and effort, which includes in-person field sampling and telephone interviews, will continue under MRIP. But many specific survey elements related to both data collection, estimation and reporting will be refined to address issues such as data gaps, bias, consistency, accuracy, and timeliness.
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