Background

At the January 28, 2020 meeting of the Sport Fisheries Advisory Commission (SFAC), the commission unanimously passed a motion to:

Establish a new committee, Tidal and Coastal Recreational Fisheries. This committee will be dedicated to tidal and coastal fishing issues, anticipating trends in fish stocks, integrating technology for improved data, and increasing citizen participation with our Maryland Department of Natural Resources.

Purpose and Role

Maryland has many important fisheries that occur in tidal waters and coastal waters​

Given the complex and ever-changing nature of fisheries management, and the recreational fishery as a whole, the Tidal and Coastal Recreational Fisheries Committee (TCRFC) will work as a standing subcommittee of the SFAC to:

• Provide a more frequent, and as necessary connection for the greater recreational fishing community, than the current quarterly SFAC schedule allows.
• Work with the Department of Natural Resources’ Fishing and Boating Services (FABS) staff to connect recreational fishing stakeholders to issues in more detail at a frequency agreed upon by commission and department staff to alleviate time constraints of current commission schedule
• Work to educate and engage tidal and coastal recreational fishery stakeholders on the details of fisheries management, and identify priorities for tidal and coastal recreational fishery stakeholders.

Tasks and topics to be considered by the committee will be requested by the SFAC, and reports from committee will be given at each SFAC meeting or as requested by the SFAC chair. These may include, but not be limited to the following:

• Understanding recreational fishing data collection systems and challenges
• Understanding the needs of FABS and capacity to tackle current issues vs. wants and needs of recreational fishing community

• Spatial and temporal changes in fish stocks and management shifts/challenges
• Anticipated mid and long range regulatory changes
• Expanding and new fisheries
• Angler effort and activity shifts/trends
• Developing fisheries/declining fisheries