Social Media Data Mining: Scope, Approaches and Roles in Recreational Fisheries Assessment and Management

Recreational fishing (RF) surveys are expensive and budget constraints frequently prevent the establishment of regular survey programs, despite the risk of excluding recreational fish mortality in stock assessments. Therefore novel methods of gathering RF data to complement existing survey methods and fisheries monitoring warrant investigation.

This study presents a novel methodology for the collection of effort and catch data from social media sources, and contrasts data yields with other fisher knowledge sources. Data were compiled under the new methodology for a UK recreational Sea Bass (Dicentrarchus labrax) fishery, demonstrating that mined data were sensitive to known spatiotemporal variations in effort. Social media sources and technological solutions effective in mining angler data were identified, and synergies with traditional survey methods and citizen science projects explored.

It was concluded that data mining can be an effective tool in gathering information in data sparse recreational fisheries. Such data could help direct traditional surveys by providing high resolution maps of relative spatiotemporal effort, and trophy catch records can be used to assess local management measures.