Anglers ready your hooks... and cell phones

ATLANTIC BEACH — When anglers head out for the 25th annual Raleigh Saltwater Sportfishing Club King Mackerel Tournament, their mobile phone could play an important part in their day of fishing.

Tournament participants have been invited to test a new recreational fishing data collection method based on text messaging. Dubbed RecText, it calls for anglers to text the results of their boat’s daily fishing effort and catch to a computer database.

Using codes provided, anglers are able to text short messages providing information such as the number of people who fished; how long they fished; the species of fish they caught; and the fish they released.

Scott Baker, lead researcher for RecText and fisheries specialist for North Carolina Sea Grant, said the focus of the pilot project is finding a way for anglers to easily submit data on their catches and fishing effort.

“What we want to see is if this technology is good for this type of thing,” he said.

Mobile phones and texting seemed to be the most feasible application because it’s relatively user friendly and most people have a mobile phone. And even onboard a boat, it’s convenient.

“It may not be convenient to drag a computer around a boat or carry it in a tackle box, but everybody has a cell phone they can use,” Baker said.

According to a spring 2009 article on RecText in N.C. Sea Grant’s Coastwatch magazine, Baker approached friend Ian Oeschger, a software developer, with the idea of text messaging for data collection and they developed a pilot project for RecText with funding from a Sea Grant mini-grant.

Baker said they first tested RecText last year with the help of six charter boat captains in the Wilmington area, and they are currently trying it out at a series of fishing tournaments.

This weekend’s tournament is the second of four king mackerel tournaments participating in the test.

Baker and a team involved in the project were in Atlantic Beach Friday as registration for the Raleigh Saltwater Sportfishing Club tournament began. Instructions for RecText and the required codes were placed in the registration packets along with traditional paper surveys.

Baker said they wanted to be on hand to explain the process and encourage participation, which is voluntary.

In January, Baker received approximately $23,000 in grant funds from the N.C. Marine Fisheries Commission and Wildlife Resources Commission to test the text-messaging data collection method in fishing tournament settings.

While tournaments may have a big impact on a fishery, he said, data and information on fishing effort isn’t always adequate.

At tournaments, the data typically comes from the catches weighed in. That doesn’t account for those catches that are released or are never brought to the scales, Baker said.

Text messaging would allow all anglers, whether they weigh in or not, to easily report their day’s fishing effort.

“That information is still valuable for fishery management,” Baker said.