Authors: Josef Hrabowski – Ball State –
josef.hrabowski@bsu.edu (Primary); Sandy Clark-Kolaks – Indiana DNR
Drew Holloway – Muncie Sanitary District; Paul Venturelli – Ball State; Mackensie Shears - Ball State – mackensie.shears@bsu.edu
Abstract:Creel surveys give fisheries managers important insight into waterbody-specific angler behavior, but they are expensive to conduct. This limits the number of creel surveys that an agency can carry out. Recent studies have suggested that user-generated app data could produce similar metrics as traditional creel surveys. However, most of these studies have been limited in spatial or temporal extend, so more research is needed to determine the circumstances under which user-generated app data can supplement in-person creel surveys. In this study, we identified over 200 creel surveys from across the United States that coincided with a minimum number of catch records that were logged within the popular fishing app ‘Fishbrain’. We then compared metrics from the creel surveys to reasonable proxies based on data from within the app. Our results are identifying metrics that can be reliably derived from app data, and the minimum sample size at which Fishbrain data are likely to provide a reasonable approximation for a given metric and perhaps species. Our work contributes to efforts to use app and other sources of digital data to fill in knowledge gaps by supplementing current monitoring efforts in both space and time.
Tags: creel-survey, App-Data
