Fish and Wildlife’s Bureau of Marine Fisheries (BMF) utilizes the Recreational Saltwater Volunteer Angler Survey to collect information on recreationally important marine finfish species. Current data collection efforts for recreational fisheries are hindered by sampling only a small portion of the fishing public and from collecting minimal data on released fish. Information collected through this voluntary survey will provide data that may support alternative management strategies that increase fishing opportunities for the public.

The focus of this voluntary survey is to collect information on catch and effort from recreational fishing trips in marine and estuarine waters of the state and surrounding areas. For catch information, BMF staff are interested in collecting information on the number and size of both kept and released species and should not be used only for successful trips. Trips with zero catch are important to report also.

Thank you for your assistance with this project – we value your input!

Survey Participation Options

• Reporting form optimized for desktop and laptop computers
• Reporting form optimized for smart phones and other mobile devices  (can also be used on desktop or laptop computers).
• Detailed printable form  which can be e-mailed or mailed to BMF (see footnote on form for address and e-mail address).
• Simple printable form for reporting summer flounder & black sea bass . Lengths are pre-printed on the form allowing for a tally-mark system of rapidly recording fish lengths (example, here ). This form can also be e-mailed or mailed to BMF (see footnote on form for address and e-mail address).

Questions? Try our Recreational Saltwater Volunteer Angler Survey FAQs

Even more questions?

For additional questions, assistance or concerns, please e-mail: marine_survey@njdepwptest.net.

Please keep in mind – when you do report a trip, it should only be reported once. Please DO NOT submit Striped Bass Bonus Program information using this survey. Please use the Online Striped Bass Logbook only.