This project supports the conduct of the national marine fisheries service marine recreational information program access point angler intercept survey

Recreational anglers throughout coastal north carolina will be intercepted at public fishing access sites and interviewed to determine recreational finfish data including catch and effort as well as participation and fishing mode. Collected data will be used to assess the health of fish stocks and inform appropriate management measures. The national oceanic and atmospheric administration has an established minimum level of sampling called allocations to estimate recreational catch with reasonable precision on a regional scale. Base allocations are in units of assignments worked. The base level in north carolina is approximately 5000 angler intercepts. For states such as north carolina that require fishery management plans for state managed fisheries larger sample sizes are necessary to produce sufficiently precise estimates. North carolina has continuously doubled or tripled levels of sampling relative to the base in agreement with atlantic coastal cooperative statistics program 2017 recommendations that future resources be focused on optimizing sampling effort with strategic allocation of samples to reduce percent standard error to acceptable levels. Until national oceanic and atmospheric administration secures funding for this increase in sample size north carolina will continue to supplement access point angler intercept survey sampling with alternate funding sources including wallop breaux and state recreational license monies.furthermore national oceanic and atmospheric administration base sampling occurs during periods of peak fishing activity. Sampling outside of this peak time is less efficient but incredibly necessary to adequately represent fishing activity annually. Increasing sampling above the base and distributing IT throughout the year allows north carolina to achieve more holistic precision through time.