More flawed numbers from the Marine Recreational Information Program

Those that read this column on a regular basis know that I constantly find fault with the Marine Recreational Information Program numbers that fishery managers use to make recreational fishing regulations. Well, the MRIP data is out for the first half of 2024 and the numbers are just as bad as always.

Let’s begin with black sea bass. According to the MRIP for Delaware, there were no black sea bass harvested from shore or from party boats in the first six months of 2024. Now I do agree that no black sea bass over the 13-inch minimum size were caught from shore. However, I do find it difficult to believe that none were caught from party boats and only 630 were caught from charter boats during the first six months of this year.

While those professional fishermen were doing so poorly, we amateurs racked up 24,916 black sea bass during the same time period.

Bluefish were even worst. Party boats didn’t catch a single one, while charter boats caught 225. Shore fishermen caught 16,033, and those who fish from their own or rental boats caught 22,819. That’s pretty good considering both of those types of fishing are only allowed to keep three blues per person while charter and head boat patrons are allowed to keep five blues.

Moving on to scup or porgies, we see that shore anglers caught zero, party boats had 337 and charter boats had 16. The big surprise here is the private and rental fleet caught 5,487 porgies. I would very much like to know exactly where those 5,487 porgies were landed. I do fishing reports every day for WGMD-FM and if I had more then two or three reports of porgies all year, I would be surprised. Exactly what formula did NOAA use that created 5,487 fish out of 10 or 12.

And finally, we come to summer flounder. If you surf fish or fish Indian River Inlet, you may be surprised to learn that no summer flounder were landed from shore. Party boats had 894 and charter boats had 198, and this is when the minimum size was 16 inches. Once again, the private and rental boat category came through with the largest catch of 17,259.

In Virginia, party boats didn’t catch any summer flounder. Party boats didn’t harvest any scup or bluefish either. There were 73,547 blues taken from shore, and 356 were caught from charter boats, with 22,902 harvested from private or rental boats.

In Maryland, charter and party boats didn’t harvest any bluefish, yet 35,280 were taken from shore and 16,792 were caught from private or rental boats. They really had bad luck with summer flounder. Party boats only had 167, charter boats had none, but private or rental boats took 4,648.

I am really surprised at the low number of all species caught by head and charter boats. You see, both businesses must file a Vessel Trip Report if they have a federal permit, and they must have a federal permit to fish in the ocean farther than three miles from the shore. The trip report records the number and species of fish landed. It would seem either the head and charter boat captains don’t do well for their customers or they don’t count fish very well.

No one has ever accused me of being the brightest beacon on the beach, but even I can see the discrepancies in these figures. If I can see the problem, why can’t people with a much higher education and a degree in the subject matter see it as well? Please don’t tell me it is the best data available. That excuse is getting very old.

I know there is movement to make the MRIP more accurate. The part that bothers me is the same people who run it now will be the same people who will build the new model.

First, it is not possible to get an exact count of the number of fish caught by recreational fishermen. All you can do is get an idea if a certain species is moving up or down. That is affected by so many factors from weather, to bait to popularity to availability that you just can’t factor the number of a certain species caught from a certain port.

You need to listen to regular fishermen, not so much charter and head boat captains, to find out what we have to say. We also have an investment in recreational fishing. We fish the surf, the inlets or run our own boats.  The decisions you make have an impact on us as well.

As many of you know, I do sit on the Advisory Council for Black Sea Bass, Scup and Summer Flounder, and I am one of the few recreational fishermen on that council. Most of the members are in the fishing business.  They view fish as dollars; I view fish as recreation.