Charter and party boats offer the angler a rare link to the full spectrum of inshore, offshore, and highly migratory fisheries. By conservative estimates, this growing segment of the region’s marine economy accounted for over one million individual angler trips during 2000. The “for hire” nature of the service provided by boat captains represents a hybrid of both recreational- and commercial-level harvest, depending on trip conditions and circumstances.

This fishing sector, therefore, has unique attributes that call for special educational outreach. Responding to the trend of increased charterboat activity, Virginia Sea Grant specialists have worked for a number of years to improve the understanding of the fishery management complex by the “for hire” fishing industry and, at the same time, improve understanding of the industry by federal, regional, and state resource managers. Educational workshops have been conducted throughout the Mid-Atlantic region in cooperation with other Sea Grant extension programs from New Jersey to North Carolina.

New Publication

Design and prototype testing of multi-fish descending devices in Mid-Atlantic recreational fisheries. VIMS Marine Resource Report No. 2015-12, VSG-15-06, August 2015