Sea Anglers Wanted for Government Project to Help Sustainable Fisheries

A new call is being made for sea anglers to contribute to an important project that will help the management of marine fisheries.

The Sea Angling Diary Project is funded by the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and the devolved governments of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. It involves around 2,000 sea anglers who get a free mobile app to record their fishing activity and catches.

Data collected on activity, catches and spending helps inform decision making on the sustainable management of marine stocks and the development of sea angling.

Now in its sixth year, it provides significant benefits to those that take part. Sea anglers get a free Sea Angling Diary Mobile App and online tool that allows easy recording of fishing trips, locations, methods and catches. They also get a catch recording kit including a fish ID booklet, tape measure and waterproof notebook to help accurate recording of catches.

Available on both Android and iOS devices, the free app is available to everyone that takes part in the project and allows them to record catches on the go, identify target species, upload photos and see summaries of what they have done in the year.

Sea anglers also get entered into prize draws throughout the year from Fishing Megastore and Sea Angler Magazine.

The Sea Angling Diary Project is run by research company and angling experts Substance (www.substance.net) with the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (Cefas, www.cefas.co.uk). It is supported by the Irish Federation of Sea Anglers, Welsh Federation of Sea Anglers, Scottish Federation of Sea Anglers and the Angling Trades Association.

Project manager, Adam Brown, Head of Research at Substance said: ‘There is a lot in this for sea anglers – access to state of the art technology to record all their sea fishing activities and catches and rewards for taking part. But most importantly it allows anglers to contribute to an important, national citizen science project, collecting data across the UK that will help inform the ongoing management of our fisheries at a critical time.’

Anglers can find out more and sign up at: www.seaangling.org

They can download the app by searching for “Sea Angling Diary” in the app store, or from these links:

Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.substance2005.sad

Apple: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/sea-angling-diary/id1457690880