Introduction
'NOAA Fisheries' Marine Recreational Information Program (MRIP) is the state-regional-federal partnership that develops, improves and implements a national network of surveys to measure how many fish anglers catch and how many trips they take. The data [MRIP] collects helps scientists and managers assess and maintain sustainable fish stocks.' - NOAA Fisheries
The MRIP consists of several independent, yet complementary surveys:
- The Access Point Angler Intercept Survey (APAIS) is an intercept survey conducted at public marine fishing access points (i.e. boat ramps, piers, beaches, jetties, marinas, etc.). This survey estimates catch per unit effort in all fishing modes.
- The Fishing Effort Survey (FES) is a mail based survey which estimates recreational shore and private boat fishing effort by utilizing the US Postal Service's list of residential addresses and the list of mailing addresses provided by licensed or registered anglers.
- The For-Hire Survey (FHTS) is designed to assess for-hire charter and headboat fishing effort.
- The Large Pelagics Survey (LPS) collects information on large pelagic fishes (tuna and sharks in Maine).
NOAA's Marine Recreational Information Program (MRIP) homepage
Maine's MRIP Summary (numbers of anglers, fishing trips, more)
Maine's MRIP Recreational Landings Data
Below are links to recreational landings estimates for some of Maine's most popular species.
For more information about MRIP, please see www.countmyfish.noaa.gov. To query NOAA's MRIP estimates, follow the "Data Queries" and "MRIP Query Tool" links.