CLARE sea anglers are to play their part in online survey aimed at improving the management of stocks and in support of conservation efforts.
This online survey seeks to collect information on the behaviours, attitudes and catch preferences of all Irish sea anglers. This information will feed into the Irish Marine Recreational Sea Angling Survey (IMREC) project where it will be analysed by researchers.
Inland Fisheries Ireland has established this new programme which will give a clear picture of how fishing activities relate to stock levels. This work is funded by the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF).
Dr Cathal Gallagher, Head of Research and Development at IFI said, “We know that there are approximately 126,000 sea anglers in Ireland and we hope that they will help us to find out how often people go fishing, what they catch and what they release. Sea angling is an important activity here in Ireland and we want to ensure the future of marine fisheries resource.
“The data collected will help us to make informed decisions on how to best estimate sea angling catches in Ireland. This catch data will inform management decisions and will prevent the use of worst case scenarios, which can happen when there is a degree of uncertainty surrounding information.”
A native of Ennis, Colin McGann has been editor of The Clare Champion since August 2020. Former editor of The Clare People, he is a journalism and communications graduate of Dublin Institute of Technology.