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US State Fishing Regulations Aggregator

SPORTSEDUCATION
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US State Fishing Regulations Aggregator

Scrape fishing regulations across US states — bag limits, size limits, season dates, gear restrictions, and special rules per species. Normalizes state DNR data into a single schema for fishing apps, AI angling assistants, and outdoor media.

What It Does

This actor aggregates fishing regulation data published by state Fish & Wildlife agencies across the US. For each state, it:

  • Identifies regulation chapters by species or water type (freshwater, saltwater, anadromous)
  • Extracts per-species rules including season dates, daily bag limits, size limits, gear restrictions, and special rules
  • Normalizes the data into a unified flat schema across all 50 states

Data is sourced from eRegulations.com, an official regulation publisher serving 30+ state agencies, ensuring up-to-date and authoritative regulation content.

Supported States (v1 Seed)

The default run covers the 10 highest-demand states by search volume:

Abbreviation State Agency
WA Washington WDFW
FL Florida FWC
MN Minnesota MN DNR
WI Wisconsin WI DNR
MI Michigan MI DNR
NC North Carolina NC WRC
NY New York NYSDEC
TX Texas TPWD
OR Oregon ODFW
CA California CDFW

Use the states input to target a specific subset.

Input

Field Type Description
states Array of strings State abbreviations to scrape (e.g. ["WA", "FL"]). Leave empty to scrape all seeded states.
maxItems Integer Maximum number of regulation records to collect. Set to 0 for no limit.

Example input:

{
  "states": ["WA", "TX"],
  "maxItems": 500
}

Output

Each record in the dataset represents one species' regulation entry for a specific state, region, and water type:

Field Description
state State abbreviation (e.g. WA, FL)
agency State fish and wildlife agency name
water_type freshwater, saltwater, or anadromous
region_or_water Region, water body, or zone (statewide or named location)
species Species name
season_open Season opening date or year-round
season_close Season closing date
daily_bag_limit Number of fish allowed per day
possession_limit Cumulative fish allowed in possession
minimum_size Minimum size limit in inches
maximum_size Maximum size limit in inches
slot_limit Slot limit (protected size range)
gear_restrictions Allowed or prohibited gear
special_regulations Special rules such as catch-and-release or artificial lures only
license_required License type required
source_url Source URL of the regulation page
effective_year Regulation booklet year
scraped_at ISO timestamp of scrape

Example record:

{
  "state": "WA",
  "agency": "WDFW",
  "water_type": "freshwater",
  "region_or_water": "statewide",
  "species": "Walleye",
  "season_open": "",
  "season_close": "",
  "daily_bag_limit": "8",
  "possession_limit": "",
  "minimum_size": "",
  "maximum_size": "",
  "slot_limit": "",
  "gear_restrictions": "",
  "special_regulations": "",
  "license_required": "Freshwater fishing license",
  "source_url": "https://www.eregulations.com/washington/fishing/statewide-freshwater-species-rules",
  "effective_year": "2026",
  "scraped_at": "2026-05-30T21:37:39.700Z"
}

Use Cases

  • Fishing apps — Power regulation lookup by state and species
  • AI angling assistants — Provide authoritative rule data to fishing chatbots and recommendation engines
  • Guide and charter operators — Quickly verify legal limits across jurisdictions
  • Outdoor media — Generate regulation comparison content by state

Notes

  • Regulation data is public-domain government information
  • Season dates and limits change annually — re-run the actor at the start of each fishing season
  • The states input allows targeting specific states to reduce run time and cost
  • Some chapters contain per-water-body exceptions not captured in the statewide region field; see source_url for the full regulation text
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