In this paper, I present a model to estimate total participation in marine recreational fishing in the USA. I used the model to forecast the number of marine recreational fishermen in the years 1985, 1990, 2000, and 2025. The multivariate regression model explained almost 90% of the variation in numbers of anglers by the variables of state population size, population size of coastal counties, angler age, and length of tidal coastline. From this model, participation was forecast to increase in each state, particularly in those in the southeast USA. Overall, the number of marine anglers was forecast to increase 30% between the years 1980 and 2025 to nearly 14 million in marine coastal states. In addition, I illustrated how the forecasts of total participation can be used to roughly project the participation and fishing effort in specific fisheries.