Summary

The Marine Recreational Fisheries Statistics Program team provides essential marine recreational fisheries information to government, scientists, and the public. Since 1979 we have conducted the annual Marine Recreational Fisheries Statistics Survey (MRFSS). The purpose of this national survey is to provide a reliable database for estimating the impact of recreational fishing on marine resources.

This impact can be quite large for many recreationally fished species. There are nearly 17 million recreational marine anglers. In 1997, nearly 17 million anglers made 68 million marine fishing trips to the Atlantic, Gulf, and Pacific coasts. The estimated marine recreational finfish catch was 366 million fish, more than 50% of which was released alive.

From this page you can access our database to conduct your own user-friendly queries on our data and obtain catch and effort estimates for many common recreationally fished species.

Thanks to the consistent cooperation of conservation minded anglers, the MRFSS now encompasses over 20 years of continuous and standardized data, and represents the most scientifically credible and consistent picture of marine recreational catch, effort, and participation in the world.