Objectives 

Volunteer angler data programs can help address difficulties in collecting recreational fisheries data. However, recruiting and retaining participants can be difficult.

Methods

This study surveyed participants in the Angler Action Program, a major voluntary data program, to identify motivations and barriers to participation.

Results

Results showed that participants were most motivated by the desire to improve fisheries data, contribute to original research, and benefit scientists, as well as to improve fisheries for the enjoyment of all. Notably, results showed that anglers share motivations in common with citizen scientists in other fields, and do not seem to be motivated by dissatisfaction with fishery management or the quality of fishery science. The biggest barrier to participation for nonparticipants (identified here as those who enrolled in the program but never entered data) was lack of knowledge about the program, with a decrease in personal fishing activity the biggest barrier to continuation in the program; the time it takes to enter data, difficulties with the software, and forgetting were also cited both by nonparticipants and by program dropouts.

Implications

Outreach and feedback addressing the main motivations of participants, for example by providing data syntheses and illustrating the value of the data to science and fishery management, may offer the most effective avenues to recruiting and retaining participants.

Publications

Crandall, C.A., Monroe, M., Dutka-Gianelli, J., Fitzgerald, B. & Lorenzen, K. (2018) How to bait the hook: identifying what motivates anglers to participate in a volunteer angler data program. Fisheries (in press)