NOAA Fisheries has approved the Pacific Coast Recreational Fisheries Information Network’s (RecFIN) Regional Implementation Plan. This plan outlines recreational fishing data priorities in California, Oregon, and Washington over the next several years and will help guide NOAA Fisheries’ allocation of resources to best address the data needs of regional fishery stock assessors and managers.

We rely on the local knowledge and expertise of our partners to inform and help implement our data collection partnership. This plan was developed collaboratively by the Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission (PSMFC), RecFIN, and the States of California, Oregon, and Washington.

Priorities outlined in the plan include supporting enhanced electronic data collection; increasing onboard sampling of commercial passenger fishing vessels or recreational charter boats; continuing ongoing improvements to the RecFIN database and reporting system; increasing support to determine the age of recreationally caught groundfish; and continuing progress on NOAA Fisheries’ certification of state recreational fishing surveys, among others.

This is one of several partner developed regional implementation plans that NOAA Fisheries and its interagency Marine Recreational Information Program’s Executive Steering Committee reviews and approves. NOAA Fisheries uses these regional plans to develop a national inventory of partner needs and associated costs, and to inform decision-making for ongoing NOAA Fisheries’ research priorities and budget allocation. Regional implementation plans are just one mechanism NOAA Fisheries uses to provide critical support to states and regional partners to meet their unique recreational fishing data needs.

PSMFC is one of the three interstate marine fisheries commissions NOAA Fisheries works with on cross-state items related to shared fishery resources. PSMFC manages RecFIN, which collects, processes, analyzes, and reports statistics for fisheries along the West Coast.

Read the plan here.