MRIP Registry Information

The new National Saltwater Angler Registry was launched by the federal government on Jan. 1, 2010 and requires virtually all saltwater recreational anglers in the United States (including Virginia) to register each year. The program is an effort to build a complete and accurate "phonebook" to better contact anglers to obtain catch information directly from them. Registration can be done through a toll-free number, 1-888-674-7411, or online at www.CountMyFish.noaa.gov. Anglers are required to provide their names, dates of birth, addresses, telephone numbers, and the regions where they intend to fish, although they will not be restricted to fishing only in those regions and will not be required to register separately for each region in which they fish. There is no charge to register until 2011, at which point an annual registration fee of about $25 a year will apply. All fees collected through this federal program will go to the U.S. treasury.

The National Saltwater Angler Registry was launched by the federal government on Jan. 1, 2010 and requires virtually all saltwater recreational anglers in the United States (including Virginia) to call each year and register. The program is an effort to build a complete and accurate "phonebook" to better contact anglers to obtain catch information directly from them. Registration can be done through a toll-free number, 1-888-674-7411, or online at www.CountMyFish.noaa.gov.

Anglers are required to provide their names, dates of birth, addresses, telephone numbers, and the regions where they intend to fish, although they will not be restricted to fishing only in those regions and will not be required to register separately for each region in which they fish. There is no charge to register until 2011, at which point an annual federal registration fee of about $25 a year will apply to anglers in states that do not achieve exempt status from the national registry.

Some anglers do not have to register with National Saltwater Angler Registry: those under the age of 16; those who only fish on licensed charter, party or guide boats; hold a Highly Migratory Species Angling permit; or hold and are fishing under a valid commercial or subsistence fishing license or permit. The National Saltwater Angler Registry is a federal, not state, requirement. State fishing license fees continue to be required. For more information on the national registry, please go to www.CountMyFish.noaa.gov.

The Virginia Marine Resources Commission will implement a free state angler registry in 2011 so Virginia can become exempt from federal registration requirements and saltwater anglers in Virginia will not have to pay the annual federal registration fee. When the Virginia Fisherman Identification Program is implemented in January 2011, virtually all Virginia saltwater anglers 16 and older will need to be either licensed or registered for free every year with the Virginia Marine Resources Commission.

This is a good thing. This helps recreational anglers.

The way the National Marine Fisheries Service has estimated how many people fish, how often, and what they catch in the country’s saltwaters has been bitterly contested for three decades. Seemingly unending complaints from sportfishing organizations led to a 2005 congressional hearing and more than a few lawsuits over the decades. The National Academy of Sciences in 2006 concluded the system is “inadequate.”

Fishery managers are only as good as the data they have, and it does not benefit anglers to have management decisions based on educated guesses from sketchy fishing effort data due to inefficient phone surveys.

There is no doubt the current system is inefficient and incomplete. It is based on dockside interviews by understaffed and under appreciated teams of federal surveyors, and on random calls to folks who live in coastal counties in the hopes that whoever answers fishes in salt waters and will answer a few questions.

Evaluating fishing effort is especially difficult in Virginia for another reason: Fishery managers don’t know how many people go saltwater fishing. No one knows.

Large numbers of Virginians are exempt, by law, from having to buy licenses. This includes everyone age 65 and older, anyone who fishes from their dock or pier, or from their waterfront property. And no one needs a license if they fish from a boat licensed to cover everyone on board.

There could be hundreds of thousands of Virginians who fish legally without a license, and they could have an impact on the sustainability of some species that won’t be revealed until a stock assessment on a species is done, and they take years to do.

When the new Virginia Fisherman Identification Program is up and running in January, which is required under state law, virtually everyone age 16 and older will need either a fishing license or a Virginia fishing registration number before they go fishing. A toll-free number and online registration system will be established to make this free annual registration quick and simple.

As of January, when you buy a saltwater fishing license, we'll collect your contact information and you won't need to register. If you don't need to buy a license, you'll need to register with us if you fish in Virginia's saltwaters (including federal waters off Virginia's coast) or if you fish for anadromous or marine species in the state's tidal freshwaters. Anadromous fish are fish that live in saltwater but spawn in freshwater, such as striped bass, shad or herring; marine fish that are sometimes found in tidal freshwater areas are flounder, spot, croaker, bluefish and occasionally sharks.

By registering with the federal government now, and with the Virginia Marine Resources Commission annually as of January 2011, you will be helping to create a phonebook of saltwater anglers that will assist in preserving the truly excellent saltwater fishing found in Virginia.