Fish Mainland recognises the first step towards improving the management of recreational fishing is better data on catch and effort. The best source of data is recreational fishers. The benefit for fishers is that better data informs management decision-making. In other words, the benefit is in providing a basis for action or a recommendation to improve fisheries that are important to recreational fishers. Better data may also provide a basis for reducing environment impacts that benefit all fishing sectors.

With the financial support of MPI’s Sustainable Food & Fibre Futures and the Myers Foundation Trust, Fish Mainland has developed a recreational fisher self-reporting system first applied to the South Island blue cod fishery. The data is collected via a mobile app, appropriately named Mainland Catch. It is an intuitive and simple app for fishers to use on their fishing trips. A single person can record data for all members of a fishing group. While data reporting is aggregated to show blue cod caught by area, fishers’ personal data is not made available to the public.