Recreational tilefish anglers may soon be subject to new permitting and reporting requirements. The Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council held a public webinar on Tuesday, April 28, 5:30 - 7:30 p.m., to provide information on obtaining recreational tilefish permits and options available to recreational tilefish anglers for electronically submitting VTRs. During the webinar, staff from the Mid-Atlantic Council and NOAA Fisheries Greater Atlantic Regional Office covered the following topics, with opportunities for Q&A after each:
Overview of the proposed action
Step-by-Step demonstration of how to obtain a permit
Demonstration of the NOAA/GARFO Fish Online application for submitting reports
Webinar Recording and Presentation
April 28 webinar recording (Note: when viewing this recording in the Adobe Connect desktop application, you can click the narrow vertical bar on the left side of the window to display a bookmarks menu. Clicking a bookmark will allow you to jump to a specific part of the webinar.)
Webinar presentation (pdf) - this file includes the slides from the introduction, overview of proposed action, permitting demonstration, and wrap up. The Fish Online demo portion of the webinar can only be viewed in the webinar recording linked above.
Meeting Materials
Frequently Asked Questions Related to Permitting and Electronic Reporting for Recreational Tilefish Anglers (updated 5/5/20)
Background Information
Under proposed regulations published by NOAA Fisheries, private recreational vessels (including for-hire operators using their vessels for non-charter, recreational trips) would be required to obtain a federal vessel permit to target or retain golden or blueline tilefish north of the Virginia/North Carolina border. These vessel operators would also be required to submit vessel trip reports (VTRs) electronically within 24 hours of returning to port for trips where tilefish were targeted or retained. For more information about the proposed requirements, check out the Recreational Tilefish Permitting and Reporting FAQs.
NOAA Fisheries is encouraging anglers not already using another electronic VTR system to utilize NOAA Fish Online, which is available through a mobile app or a web-based portal. Other systems that may be suitable for recreational anglers include SAFIS eTrips mobile and SAFIS eTrips Online. You can access information about approved applications and other aspects of electronic reporting on the NOAA Fisheries website.
Contact: Please direct any questions to Matt Seeley, mseeley@mafmc.org, (302) 526-5262.