CONCUR facilitated a two-day meeting intended to generate concrete strategies for improving the timeliness of data used to manage recreational fisheries nationwide.

The Recreational Data Timeliness Workshop, sponsored by the NMFS Marine Recreational Information Program, was attended by about 40 invited participants, including representatives from NMFS headquarters, several NMFS regions and science centers, state and regional fishery management councils, fishery management commissions, representatives of the recreational fishing community, and NGOs involved in fisheries management and conservation.

Focused on learning from experiences with recreational fishing data timeliness across the different NMFS regions, the workshop considered approaches to meet new demands for both data collection and management related to timeliness, and explored new strategies for improving data timeliness, looking at the details of both lag time and “waves” of reporting and the linkage to fishery management. This workshop was compelling to fishery managers, recreational fishing interests, and conservation interests due to their stake in the potential benefits of increased data timeliness.

Workshop Steering Committee members included representatives from American Sportfishing Association, Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, Coastal Conservation Association, Pew Trusts, and Environmental Defense Fund.  The workshop summary report is available in PDF here.