Digital fisheries data in the Internet age: Emerging tools for research and monitoring using online data in recreational fisheries

Abstract

Recreational fisheries are diverse in scale, scope, and participation worldwide, constituting an important ecosystem service of marine and freshwater ecosystems.Management of these socio-ecological systems is challenged by monitoring gaps, stemming from difficulties engaging with participants, biased sampling, and insufficient resources to conduct biological or social surveys of fish and human populations.In the Internet age, online data have great potential to make a meaningful contribution to recreational fisheries research, monitoring, and management. Recreational fishers in some countries increasingly use social and other digital media to share their experiences with followers, with most data freely available to web scrapers that compile databases of text (e.g. tweets, status updates, comments), photos, videos and other media that contain information about spatiotemporal activity, sentiments towards catches/experiences, targeted and bycatch species, effort levels, and more.Although the future of recreational fisheries research, monitoring and management will likely involve more digital scraping, uptake is only just beginning and there are

‘A human values issue’: Actors, arguments, and regulatory change in the Florida land‐based shark fishery

“…Social media can play a critical role in creating and enforcing norms within a community, helping to shape what is viewed as common or acceptable practice (e.g. for coastal tourism practices (Sultan et al, 2021) and recreational fishing (Danylchuk et al, 2018; Guckian et al, 2018; Lennox et al, 2022)). The nature of social media sharing, however, shapes how and how quickly information is disseminated.…”

Oceans of plenty? Challenges, advancements, and future directions for the provision of evidence-based fisheries management advice

“…App-based self-reporting approaches have been particularly useful for collecting socioeconomic data and may help improve stakeholder engagement and willingness to share otherwise confidential information (Skov et al 2021 ). In the future, the ability to data-mine and analyze the increasing quantity of digital fisheries data (e.g., social media posts and search trends) will further enable rapid collation of baselines and subsequent patterns in both socioeconomic and ecological factors (Lennox et al 2022 ). However, self-reported data can sometimes be unrepresentative when economic or social factors exist and each of these data sources is associated with potential sampling biases.…”

‘Many eyes on the water’: The role of citizen science in freshwater conservation

“…As illustrated by the previous examples, the observations of citizen scientists can produce valuable data to monitor freshwater restoration sites and aquatic species, which can be used in the spatial planning process. This encourages public participation and helps in understanding what actions should be implemented for species management or those that have been successful or should be EDITORIAL improved in restoration and planning processes (Huddart et al, 2016;Lennox et al, 2022;Metcalfe et al, 2022). Data collected by volunteers can influence local decision making and national policy, as has been shown for the data provided by FreshWater Watch in the UK, Brazil, and China (EarthWatch, 2022), and the role of citizen science is becoming more recognized in political agendas for conservation and evidence-based policy making (Guimarães Pereira et al, 2020).…”

“…In addition, tools other than applications for mobile devices, such as social media, can be used by citizens. Specialized forums are popular among recreational anglers, who are increasingly using social and other digital media to share their experiences and their catches, providing useful data for understanding fishing trends and dynamics, and managing fish populations (Lennox et al, 2022). Kalous, Nechanská & Petrtýl (2018) were able to identify the presence of two invasive fishes – the bigmouth buffalo Ictiobus cyprinellus and the black buffalo Ictiobus niger (Catostomidae) – in the Czech Republic based on images obtained from angler websites: 13 records were obtained, but only three were verified for species identity, date, and location.…”