MRIP Fail (Again)

Unless you live in a cave, by now you’ve probably heard of the Marine Recreational Information Program (MRIP), which is the system used by the gov-mint types to count how many fishermen are catching how many fish. You’ve probably heard that MRIP is in no small part responsible for the seemingly endless red snapper season debacle. You’ve probably heard that fisheries managers say over and over again that despite its flaws they have to use MRIP numbers because they’re the “best available science.” And you’ve probably heard over and over again that MRIP’s numbers are utter garbage, and we saltwater anglers are constantly getting the shaft as a result. That may all be true, but up until now it’ been somewhere between difficult and impossible to change because it’s darn hard to prove how many people are catching how many fish. We can scream till we’re horse that their numbers make no sense, but until we have hard evidence, we get ignored. Well, now we have hard evidence. See the chart below.

This is from a study performed in Ocean City, MD. I know that’s a long way from Texas, but they’re stuck with using MRIP numbers there, too, so hear me out. MRIP was estimating huge numbers of Maryland anglers were catching black sea bass (much as they estimate huge numbers catching red snapper in the Gulf), with the range showed at left on this graph. But there’s only the one inlet leading to the Atlantic ocean in Maryland, so someone realized they could mount a video camera there and get a hard count on exactly how many fishing boats went in and out. That’s the bar graph on the right. As you may notice, there’s a slight difference – in fact, MRIP was estimating five times as many anglers were going fishing as irrefutable video evidence showed.

This is why the red snapper season is always so screwed up in the Gulf. This is why the sea bass season is so screwed up in the Mid-Atlantic. This directly affects you, me, and every other saltwater angler in America. It should have you hopping mad. And now, we have proof.