Assessing Electronic Mobile Devices for the Collection of Recreational Fishing Data

The increasing contribution of recreational fishing harvest to overall fishing pressure necessitates the collection of accurate and timely catch and effort data for appropriate fisheries management.  The current study empirically investigates the efficacy of obtaining recreational fishing data using electronic data capture (EDC) relative to traditional paper based surveys (PBS).  A mock-interview approach was used to compare EDC and PBS methodologies in terms of error rate, cost, and timeliness of data availability.  Mean error rate per completed survey using EDC was approximately half that of data collected using PBS.  From a cost perspective EDC was 20% cheaper to conduct than traditional PBS surveys, with annual cost savings of $27,981.  Primary cost reductions resulted from the elimination of data entry and data cleaning, which was facilitated by direct entry of data from the electronic device to the storage server where quality assurance is automatically performed by specialized software.  This improves the timeliness of data availability from 12-18 business days to near real time.  Thus, EDC is a viable alternative to the traditional PBS survey methodology for the collection of biological and socioeconomic data from the recreational fishing sector and can be applied to similar sampling regimes to promote sustainability of fisheries resources.