FAILURE TO LAUNCH
During the 2005 and 2006 debate over Magnuson-Stevens Act reauthorization language, the National Academy of Sciences' National Research Council (NRC) was conducting a comprehensive review of the recreational data collection program used by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS). The NRC's final report was issued in 2006, upon which time NRC committee chairman at the time Pat Sullivan, a Cornell University professor, referred to the recreational data collection methodology as "fatally flawed."

According to the 2006 NRC report, a panel of experts found specifically that the Marine Recreational Fishing Statistical Survey (MRFSS) which had been used by NMFS since the early 1980's to generate catch statistics from the recreational sector has "serious flaws in design or implementation and use inadequate analysis methods that need to be addressed immediately."

As a result, Congress incorporated section 109-479 under the Magnuson-Stevens Act reauthorization in 2006 specifically to implement a few of the NRC recommendations for data collection. Among the items included in the final law signed by President Bush was the use of surveys that target anglers registered or licensed at the State or Federal level to collect participation and effort data, incorporating an adequate number of dockside intercepts to accurately estimate recreational catch and effort; collection and analysis of vessel trip report data from charter fishing vessels (also known as VTR), and even development of a weather corrective factor that can be applied to recreational catch and effort estimates.

As per this federal fisheries law, the President's signature required that the Secretary of Commerce to "complete the program under this paragraph and implement the improved Marine Recreational Fishery Statistics Survey not later than January 1, 2009."