Options for Daily Electronic Reporting of Menhaden Bycatch

Begin reporting ALL Menhaden harvested in a pound net on Tuesday, April 1st.

Commercial fishermen who have harvested Menhaden have two ways to report their daily catch. Note: You do NOT need to report when you don't catch menhaden on a given day.

• Option 1: Online Daily Reporting (see form and instructions below)
• Option 2: Text Daily Reporting (see instructions below)

Option 1: Online Reporting via the Department of Natural Resources Website

• Complete this form or see Option 2 (below).

Option 2: Text Reporting with your Cell Phone

You will be texting a group of codes to 313131. Follow the below instructions in order to properly report. Review the examples, they should help explain the meaning of the information you'll be sending.

Text to phone number: 313131

The items below must be included in each text.

COMFISH (Commercial Fisheries)

What is your commercial license number?
L123 (In this example 123 is your license number.)

How many total nets did you fish?
T3 (Total number of pound nets)

How long did the nets soak?
N4 N4 N5 (Soak time, in days, for each net)

What did you harvest?
Q3000(P or B or X) (The amount of pounds, bushels or boxes you harvested)
P = Pounds, B = Bushels, X = Boxes

Example 1: Your license number is 202, you fished 1 pound net, the net soaked for 5 days, and you caught 5 boxes of Menhaden.

This is what your text would look like: COMFISH L202 T1 N5 Q15X

Example 2: Your license number is 189, you fished 3 pound nets, the nets soaked for 5, 5 and 3 days, and you caught 200 pounds of Menhaden.

This is what your text would look like: COMFISH L189 T3 N5 N5 N3 Q200P

NOTE: Texts are not case sensitive. COMFISH must be the first word in the text.

QUESTIONS? Contact Connie Lewis at connie.lewis@maryland.gov or by phone at 410-260-8296.