Official State of Rhode Island website

State of Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management

Data Requests and Availability

The Division of Marine Fisheries collects and houses fishery-independent (e.g., field survey data) and fishery-dependent (e.g., commercial catch and landings) data. Some, but not all, of these data are subject to the Access to Public Records Act (APRA; RIGL 38-2), which is described on the Attorney General's website, "The Attorney General's Guide to Open Government." Please refer to the sections below for guidance on how to acquire different datasets.

Fishery-dependent Data

Commercial

Confidential 

These data are NOT subject to APRA. Refer to the policy below for additional information. If you are a fisherman requesting your own commercial fishing data, submit a request using this form. If you are dealer seeking your own dealer reports, please follow these instructions to pull these data from eDR. 

Access to confidential fisheries-dependent data may be required for various individuals to complete their job duties. These data include state effort and landings data (e.g., logbooks and dealer reports). Access is requested through the Atlantic Coastal Cooperative Statistics Program (ACCSP) Data Warehouse and approval is required before any individual can obtain confidential data. Confidential data cannot be disclosed publicly and must be aggregated to the “rule of three” before any data point can be shared. These confidentiality requirements stem from RI State Statute (§ 20-1-20) and Department of Environmental Management Regulation (Section 2.7.8(G) of 250-RICR-90-00-2). Any individual who violates this requirement may have their confidential access revoked. 

Confidential access will be granted to:

  • Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management staff as required to fulfill job duties
  • Partner agency employees (other states and federal agencies) directly involved in fisheries management
  • Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) board members or staff 
  • Members of ASMFC technical committees/stock assessment sub committees who are not a state or federal employee
  • ACCSP staff
  • New England Fishery Management Council staff or council members
  • Mid Atlantic Fisheries Management Council staff or council members 

Confidential access may be granted to:

  • Academics (professors and students)
    • Access will be granted on a case-by-case basis. Studies conducted in conjunction with the Department may be approved, consistent with § 20-1-20.
    • The project must be fishery related, require confidential level data, and the data request must support the project. 
      • Confidential level data is often not necessary for the requests we have received to date. The Division recommends that these requests be processed by ACCSP through the custom data request form.
      • If you are requesting data from multiple states, the ACCSP custom data request is the recommended route. 
    • If the researcher does not also successfully get access to federal data through the NOAA Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries Office, state information may not be useful. Therefore, a request for state data may be denied in the event that the researcher cannot obtain NOAA data access.

Confidential access will not be granted to:

  • Private organizations/businesses
  • Members of the public
  • Researchers/academics not engaged in projects with the Department
  • Anyone who has previously violated the “rule of three"
Non-confidential (aggregated)

If data are aggregated to meet the Rule of Three, they may be able to be released to the public. These data are available in various reports and online portals, including but not limited to:

Data unavailable through these public resources may be subject to APRA. For fastest processing, please submit a request to DMF using the following online form.

Recreational

DMF contributes to the collection of recreational fishing harvest and effort data through the NOAA Fisheries Marine Recreational Information Program’s (MRIP) Access Point Angler Intercept Survey (APAIS). All data collected as part of this program are housed by NMFS and public data are available for access through the MRIP query portal.

Fishery-independent Data

The DMF conducts a variety of fishery-independent surveys to monitor species populations in state waters. Refer to our Surveys webpage for additional information about specific directed surveys. Data products from these surveys are featured in technical reports and peer-reviewed literature that are publicly available:

If the data you are looking for are not available through these publicly available resources, you may submit a request for data subject to APRA. For fastest processing, please submit requests using this electronic form. 

Submitting your requests using the online forms linked above will help us to process your request more quickly. However, if you are unable to submit online or require assistance in any way, we can offer other methods for submitting your request. If you have any questions about how to request data or need assistance, please contact us. Feel free to call, email, or visit our office in person!

For any non-Marine Fisheries data requests, or requests involving data from multiple Divisions, please see DEM File Reviews or contact them at Dem.filereview@dem.ri.gov.