Angler Action Program Launched

 "With the threat of longstanding fishing closures, the time has come for recreational anglers at large to stop being viewed as the problem,”
- Rick Roberts, Snook Foundation

Inshore anglers getting involved with science-based fishery management

The combination of an on-the-water data collection form with an online logbook makes it easy for anglers to accurately record timely catch data in the Angler Action Program, giving inshore anglers the chance to become part of the solution to highly pressured fish stocks.  Data collected by anglers will contribute to sound, science-based fishery management decisions.

An easy-to-use form can be completed by anglers while fishing and then transcribed directly onto the internet, and meetings are scheduled for those who prefer direct instruction and more hands-on experience (including fishing!)

By collecting usable information about directed fishing trips, this program will allow anglers the opportunity to play a part in conserving our valuable fisheries and habitat. It also ensures that the data utilized to evaluate stocks of fish includes direct angler input.

We had two different circumstances in two different states that led us to one conclusion," said Snook Foundation Chairman Brett Fitzgerald. “In Florida, the recent cold kill had anglers and biologists alike asking what we could do to help our fishery, which took a huge hit. In Texas, public scoping meetings early this year revealed a dearth of useful information on common snook. In both cases, the answer is: more data.”    

The Angler Action Program is not a substitute for directed snook research, but angler surveys, including the FWRI’s Snook Logbook program that was initiated with funding from the Snook Foundation  have provided valuable information for fishery management. 

The Snook Foundation designed the online logbook program with Florida Fish and Wildlife Institute and TPWD Coastal Fisheries Division input, and closely tracks the information biologists ask in face-to-face surveys. The web application currently is paid for by donations to the Snook Foundation. 

We want angler reports of numbers of snook caught, kept, released,  with the option of providing more detailed information about the lengths and locations of each snook captured, kept or released.  If this system works well for tracking Snook, anglers may elect to track other gamefish populations.

The form takes 2-3 minutes to fill-out...
- Rick Roberts, Snook Foundation

“The form takes 2-3 minutes to fill-out, maybe even less after an angler has used it a couple of times,” said Roberts. “We’re excited about the prospect of giving recreational anglers a tool to contribute meaningful information about what are, after all, their fisheries.”

"This is something we have long believed would be useful...
- Ron Taylor, FWCC

LOOKING AHEAD...GREAT EXPECTATIONS

Ron Taylor, the biologist who leads FWRI's Snook Research said,  "This is something we have long believed would be useful, and we are happy for the Snook Foundation to help gather data we might not otherwise see," he said.  "once the program is up-and-running, we'll have a new dataset to use in conjunction with the fisheries-independent and fisheries-dependent data we have collected all along."

FWRI will be providing measuring tapes and waterproof versions of the Data Collection Form for anglers to use while on the water, to be distributed by Snook Foundation.  The information captured while fishing can then be transferred with a high degree of confidence to the online database after a trip.

"This is going to give us some information about catch per unit of effort, about length distribution and- hopefully- about the habitat post-juvenile fish are utilizing," said Wise.

Fitzgerald said that volunteers are available to answer questions via phone or email.  "We want this to be useful to fisheries managers, and that means the data has to be rock-solid," he said.   Fitzgerald acknowledged that some anglers may be hesitant to enter specific latitudes and longitudes for their trips, out of fear of returning to find their honey holes crowded, but reiterates that it is optional , and leaving it out of the survey will not invalidate an angler's report.

PAST SUCCESS OF ANGLER REPORTS

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission runs a longstanding Snook Research Program that has made good use of angler-volunteers to submit fisheries-dependent information, for which the Snook Foundation provided initial funding. And while the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department has used voluntary reports in freshwater fisheries – and found the data to be just as valid as more traditional creel surveys led by state biologists – there is only one comparable program, the Tarpon Observation Network, for coastal fisheries.

A paper published in an American Fisheries Society Journal last year compared the results of a voluntary angler survey with concurrent TPWD-staffed creel surveys at Fayette County Reservoir from 2004-2006 and found that the fish lengths collected by volunteers were valid. The paper also reports that the monetary costs of the 20-month volunteer survey were only 16 percent of the 12-month staffed survey.

That volunteer program, like a longstanding and ongoing program at Texas’ Lake Fork, specifically looks at fishing effort and length distribution of catches in the lakes’ trophy largemouth bass