NOAA Fisheries Commercial & Recreational Landings Scraper

Extract structured commercial and recreational fishing landings data from the NOAA Fisheries One Stop Shop (FOSS) — the authoritative federal registry of U.S. fish and shellfish landings maintained by NOAA's National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS). This Actor queries the public FOSS REST API and delivers clean, filterable results ready for market research, fisheries economics, and supply-chain analysis.

The FOSS database is the gold standard for U.S. fisheries data. It covers all U.S. states and territories (Gulf, Atlantic, Pacific, and Alaska regions), hundreds of commercial and recreational species, and decades of historical records back to the 1980s. Fields include species common and scientific names, state, NOAA region, year, pounds landed, and ex-vessel dollar value — the exact market-sizing signals that seafood processors, marine industry analysts, and fisheries economists need.

Key Features

• No API key required — Pulls directly from the public NOAA FOSS ODS REST API
• Commercial and recreational landings — Separate tracking for commercial harvests and MRIP recreational survey data
• Filter by state, species, year range, and collection type — Focus on exactly the data you need
• Historical depth — Data back to the 1980s for long-term trend analysis
• Clean JSON output — Species name, scientific name, region, state, year, pounds, dollar value, and source type
• Batch-optimized — Streams results in batches of 500; controlled by configurable maxResults
• LLM-ready output — Structured fields designed for RAG pipelines, dashboards, and spreadsheet analysis

Output Data Fields

Field	Type	Description
speciesName	string	AFS common name of the species (e.g., "SALMON, CHINOOK")
scientificName	string	Scientific name when available (e.g., "Oncorhynchus tshawytscha")
region	string	NOAA region (e.g., "Pacific", "Gulf", "New England")
state	string	U.S. state or territory name (e.g., "ALASKA", "MAINE")
year	integer	Reporting year
collection	string	"Commercial" for commercial fishing; "Recreational" for MRIP survey
pounds	integer	Total pounds landed (live weight equivalent)
dollars	integer	Ex-vessel value in USD (what the vessel was paid at the dock)
totalCount	integer	Estimated total count of fish for recreational catch data
source	string	Data source code (e.g., "MRIP", "ACCSP", "PacFIN")

How to Scrape NOAA Fisheries Landings Data

Step-by-Step Tutorial

1. Open the NOAA Fisheries Landings Data Scraper on Apify Store and click Start.
2. Set your State Name to focus on a specific state (e.g., ALASKA) or leave blank for all states.
3. Set a Species Name filter to narrow results (e.g., SALMON or HALIBUT) or leave blank for all species.
4. Set Year From and Year To to define your analysis window (e.g., 2018–2024 for recent trends).
5. Choose a Collection Type: Commercial for commercial harvest data, Recreational for MRIP survey data, or leave blank for both.
6. Set Max Results to control how many records are returned (default: 2000; set to 0 for unlimited).
7. Click Start and wait for the run to complete (typically 30–120 seconds for default queries).
8. Download results as JSON, CSV, or Excel from the Dataset tab.

Use Case Examples

Market sizing for salmon supply chains: Set speciesName=SALMON, collection=Commercial, yearFrom=2018, yearTo=2023. Get pounds landed and ex-vessel value by state across all Pacific and Alaska regions — a comprehensive picture of U.S. salmon harvest volume trends over five years.

Gulf shrimp industry analysis: Set stateName=LOUISIANA, speciesName=SHRIMP, collection=Commercial. Extract annual commercial shrimp landings from the Gulf's largest producing state, including dollar value time-series data for pricing and market share analysis.

Recreational fishery health monitoring: Set collection=Recreational, speciesName=TUNA, yearFrom=2015, yearTo=2024. Track recreational tuna catch trends across all coastal states using MRIP survey data — useful for marine conservation NGOs and fishing industry associations.

Input Example

{
    "stateName": "ALASKA",
    "speciesName": "SALMON",
    "yearFrom": 2018,
    "yearTo": 2023,
    "collection": "Commercial",
    "maxResults": 1000
}

Output Example

{
    "speciesName": "SALMON, CHINOOK",
    "scientificName": "Oncorhynchus tshawytscha",
    "region": "Pacific",
    "state": "ALASKA",
    "year": 2022,
    "collection": "Commercial",
    "pounds": 12483521,
    "dollars": 47820330,
    "totalCount": null,
    "source": "PacFIN"
}

Pricing

This Actor fetches data from a free, keyless public API with pagination.

• Cost per result: $0.003/result
• Typical run (2,000 records, default settings): ~$0.006 in Actor fees
• Memory required: 256–512 MB
• Typical run time: 30–120 seconds depending on result count and filters

All pricing is transparent and set before the Actor is public per Apify's standard.

Who Uses This Data?

• Seafood processors and distributors — Monitor annual landings volume by species and state to forecast supply, negotiate contracts, and identify regional sourcing opportunities
• Commercial fishing operators — Benchmark catch performance and market share against statewide landing totals
• Marine industry analysts and consultants — Build fisheries market reports with decades of NOAA-verified volume and price data
• Fisheries economists and researchers — Time-series analysis of ex-vessel values, species mix trends, and regional production shifts
• Environmental NGOs and conservation groups — Monitor harvest trends relative to stock assessments and management targets
• Government agencies and policy teams — Assess commercial fishing industry health, inform quota decisions, and track MRIP recreational survey participation

FAQ

Is it legal to scrape NOAA fisheries landings data?

Yes. This Actor accesses publicly available data from the NOAA Fisheries One Stop Shop (FOSS), a federally maintained open data platform. No authentication is required and no terms of service are bypassed. NOAA data is U.S. government public domain information.

Why does ex-vessel value (dollars) sometimes show null?

Not all species or collection types have dollar values reported. Recreational landings typically report pounds and estimated counts but not dollar values. Some commercial species in certain regions may also lack consistent dollar reporting in the FOSS system.

How far back does the data go?

Coverage varies by region and species, but the dataset includes records back to the 1980s for most major commercial species. Use yearFrom=1980 and broad species/state filters to explore historical depth.

Can I export the data to Excel or CSV?

Yes. After a run completes, use the Dataset tab in Apify Console to download results in JSON, CSV, Excel, XML, or other formats.

Why does the Actor not filter server-side?

The NOAA FOSS ODS API does not support field-level server-side filtering — query parameters like state_name=ALASKA are present in the API URL but are not applied by the underlying database engine. This Actor handles all filtering client-side by fetching and scanning pages efficiently, stopping as soon as maxResults is satisfied.

How do I get data for all time without limits?

Set maxResults=0 to disable the limit and retrieve all matching records. For broad queries (all states, all species, many years), this may take several minutes and return tens of thousands of records.

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Legal Disclaimer

This Actor extracts publicly available data from the NOAA Fisheries One Stop Shop (FOSS), a U.S. federal government open data platform. No authentication bypass, credential use, or terms-of-service violation is involved. Users are responsible for ensuring their use of the extracted data complies with applicable laws and regulations. For support, contact the Actor developer through Apify Store.