Inland Fisheries Ireland (IFI) is looking for recreational sea anglers to take part in a citizen science project to help understand the health of fish stocks in Irish coastal waters.
By providing catch information, anglers can play their role in the in the long-term conservation and sustainability of the resource for future generations.
IFI says it’s seeking shore, small boat or charter anglers to collect and submit information on their sea fishing trips and catches around the coastline and submit it via an online diary for the Irish Marine Recreational Angling (IMREC) project.
The IMREC project aims to answer three main questions about sea angling:
- How many people in Ireland fish?
- How often do they fish?
- What do they catch?
IFI along with ESRIs ArcGIS Hub have developed a free angling diary that allows you to create an account and easily submit angling sessions on your phone or other device, providing information which will contribute to the evaluation of our marine fish stocks.
The application also creates a handy personal diary dashboard for your own use and each logged diary session will be updated here.
This gives users an opportunity to view when, where and what fish you’ve caught along with any other notes (tides, rigs etc) that you may have submitted. A summary is also provided to give you an insight into how your season is progressing.
An angling bundle (including buff, line clippers and tape) will be sent to the first 20 anglers that sign up, and a €50 tackle voucher prize draw will be held every month for active users of the diary application.
The survey team at IFI say they understand the importance of fishing marks to anglers. For this reason, your sessions will only be visible to you and the IMREC survey team.
If you are interested, the IMREC initiative is now live and can be viewed here. To take part, sign up on the web or send your name and email to [email protected] with the subject line “IMREC Diary Sign Up”.
A full FAQ along with further information on the project can be found on the IMREC website. Any further queries may be directed to [email protected].
