Fish Rules cited in Scientific Journal

The Fishbrain owned Fish Rules App is being recognized for its possible contributions in a scientific journal. This year Fish Rules data was used in a scientific study to show how fishing apps can help better understand and manage fisheries.

The journal entry is featured in ICES JOURNAL OF MARINE SCIENCE and specifically focused on proposed wind farm sites on the Atlantic ocean and the possible effects they may have on fish populations. 

Fish Rules data was used to help determine  where recreational anglers were checking regulations for certain species, and by extension where those species are caught by recreational anglers. The app was selected because, while commercial fishing activity is recorded more accurately than recreational fishing, recreational makes up a more significant amount of data. The large number of anglers who rely on the app to understand regulations while fishing, made for the perfect data source to fill in the gaps.

Researchers on the study could geolocate when and where regulations were checked, focusing solely on open rates that happened off the coast of New England and in the area of the suggested windmills.

It's important to note that while researchers could tell when and where a regulation was checked, the individual accounts that opened the regulations could not be identified, leaving the information completely anonymous.

The study proved the proposed wind farm sites are popular with private anglers, without identifying specific fishing spots. 

Co author of the study and Fishbrain team member Dr. Albrey Arrington describes this data as a first of its kind and can help include the average angler’s experiences when deciding fishing policy.  

“We used this data in a statistical analysis and looked for clusters of people who are fishing in an area for a given species. What we demonstrated was that the majority of fish in our landscape are not randomly distributed. They are going to known areas searching for fish,” Arrington said. 

“There is no good spatial data on private anglers on where they are fishing and what they are fishing for. By partnering with NOAA we were able to see hot spots for fishing areas and overlaid the proposed wind farms to see there are a lot of people fishing in these areas.”

Lead author of the study and NOAA Fisheries PHD Geret DePiper noted the added value the data from Fish Rules brings to the offshore wind development process.

“Information on private anglers is probably the biggest blind spot the federal government has in how people use marine resources,” DePiper said. “Fish Rules and Fishbrain help to fill that gap by showing where private anglers are targeting and catching individual species of interest in a way that both protects individual anonymity and provides powerful information to decision makers.”

Co-author  and NOAA Economist Scott Steinback also noted: “The impacts of offshore wind development across private recreational anglers is unclear at this point. However, what Fish Rules data allows is for angler’s voices to be heard within the policy process by documenting where private trips for individual species overlap with anticipated wind development areas,” Steinback said. “This information just isn’t available other than through collaborations like the one highlighted in this research, and allows a more robust discussion of anticipated impacts to occur.” 

The data source advocating for private fishing has never been consulted, because it did not exist. This is the first step to implementing robust, policy informing information, that features the expertise of private anglers. 

The next steps are for government scientists to recognize and implement the new data to help make the most informed policy decisions they possibly can. 

Read the full journal entry here.

Now let's go fishing. We'll help keep the fishing open.

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