Open AccessDescription and Initial Evaluation of a Text Message Based Reporting Method for Marine Recreational Anglers
Author(s) -
Baker M. Scott,
Oeschger Ian
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
marine and coastal fisheries
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.664
H-Index - 28
ISSN - 1942-5120
DOI - 10.1577/c08-042.1
Subject(s) - computer science , recreation , process (computing) , data collection , aside , world wide web , data science , art , statistics , mathematics , literature , political science , law , operating system
Despite the large number of marine recreational anglers in the United States, there exist few opportunities for individuals to contribute self‐reported effort and catch data directly to fisheries managers. Successfully implemented data collection programs based on self‐reported information have been able to provide scientists with additional indices for comparisons with existing fisheries data sets and to increase angler participation and confidence in the fisheries management process. Limitations to self‐reported data aside, the lack of a portable, electronic reporting device for the average angler has hindered development of new survey methods. We have developed a simple but fully customizable reporting method by which users can submit basic effort and catch information to an online database via text messages from mobile phones. To evaluate this new approach, we asked captains on behalf of six marine for‐hire operations to send a text message to document effort, catch, and disposition of catch by species at the completion of each for‐hire trip. Report submission was facilitated by RECTEXT, a compact syntax we developed to allow users to submit information within the technical limitations of a 160‐character text message framework. During the course of the 4.5‐month evaluation, participants submitted 128 trip‐level reports that described 1,957 finfish interactions. Results and feedback from participants indicate that the approach is easy to use, is cost efficient, and allows for real‐time reporting of information directly to an online database. In addition to the electronic angler diary application described here, we suggest that future evaluations of this approach be applied to tournament data collection, as the real‐time nature of reporting and the organized structure of tournaments may provide a mechanism to both interact with all registered anglers and facilitate design of an unbiased sampling protocol for validating the self‐reported data.