About RecFIN

Background

Established in 1992, the Pacific Coast Recreational Fisheries Information Network is designed to integrate state and federal marine recreational fishery sampling efforts into a single database to provide important biological, social, and economic data for Pacific coast recreational fishery biologists, managers and anglers.

The three Interstate Marine Fishery Commissions are critical to managing and conserving our shared coastal fisheries within the first three miles of the nation’s coastline. The Commissions were formed as interstate compacts by the coastal states of the Atlantic, Pacific and Gulf of Mexico and chartered by the United States Congress in recognition that “fish do not adhere to political boundaries.” The Commissions serve as a deliberative body, coordinating the conservation and management of the states shared near-shore fishery resources – marine, shell, and anadromous – for sustainable use.
An interstate compact is an agreement between two or more states of the United States of America. Article I, Section 10 of the United States Constitution provides that “no state shall enter into an agreement or compact with another state” without the consent of Congress. Frequently, these agreements create a new governmental agency which is responsible for administering or improving some shared resource such as an ocean or seaport. In some cases, a compact serves simply as a coordination mechanism between independent authorities in the member states.