Recreational fisher self-reporting app gets on the water
To state the obvious, recreational fishers are the best source of information to help improve the management of fisheries important to them.
Alan Key, who is a Fish Mainland Board of Director, says “recreational fisher self-reporting would greatly improve management decision making by reducing reliance on anecdotal information about what was caught where and when.”
Geoff Rowling, who is a Fish Mainland member, says “fishers reported data would help take a lot of the ‘guess work’ out of decisions that impact on them. The self-reporting system provides them the opportunity to participate in sustainable management by putting forward valued data that only they can provide.”
Fish Mainland is working with Plink Software in Nelson to develop the self-reporting system. The CEO of Plink Software, Jeremy Banks, says “the system is designed as a user-friendly app that collects fine-scale data on fishers’ catch and effort. The system is being applied first to the iconic blue cod fishery.”
“The data provided by recreational fishers includes the blue cod area fished, the fishing platform and method, time fished and other measures of effort. It also includes self-reporting of any marine mammal observations during the fishing trip and entry of any comments,” says Jeremy.
The self-reporting system is designed in accordance with the Research and Science Information Standard for New Zealand Fisheries (MPI). The system’s data can be used to calculate the following for each blue cod area:
Monthly and annual effort.
Average catch rates.
Average number of fish caught and retained (relative to bag limits) per fisher.
Average number of fish released per fisher.
Proportion of zero catch trips and limit bag trips.
“More specifically, the self-reporting system can provide samples of reported data that provide broad signals, or indicator statistics, regarding trends in catch and effort for both targeted blue cod and bycatch within the different areas. The aim is for the data to greatly enhance what we know about the health of the fishery in each area, since blue cod is vulnerable to localised depletion”, says Jeremy.
Recently, Alan, Geoff and Jeremy trialled the app in Tasman Bay outside Motueka. Alan said, “while the app performed very well, we did find a couple things that warrant minor changes in reporting. For example, we found there isn’t any value in taking images of undersized blue cod. Instead, we can reduce mortality if their size is estimated, and they are released at the water line.”
“We anticipate the app will be in fishers’ hands within the next month or so. The next trial phase is to provide the app to the Fiordland Marine Guardians, fishing clubs and other groups that understand the value of their reporting and are prepared to report regularly and accurately. And, since they are defined populations of fishers fishing in discrete areas, there are better opportunities to assess potential underlying biases in the data,” says Jeremy.
“The real carrot for the groups participating in the upcoming trial is that they can have specific reporting codes, so they regularly receive reports on their members’ collated catch and effort information for each blue cod area. While the data will report the GPS coordinates of where fish are caught, the location will be reported by the blue cod area. So, your favourite fishing spots won’t be revealed,” says Alan.
This article is also available on The Fishing Paper, November 2021 issue 194. View Original Article
