Irish Marine Recreational Angling Survey

Irish Marine Recreational Angling Survey (IMREC)

Sea angling is an important recreational activity in Ireland, providing social and economic benefits across rural and coastal communities. Over recent years, there has been a greater effort by the European Commission to try to learn more about the sea angling resource across EU member states. For this reason, Inland Fisheries Ireland has established the Irish Sea Angling Survey to collect information on fishing effort and catches around the coastline.

As part of the programme, Inland Fisheries Ireland is seeking recreational sea anglers to help understand the health of our fish stocks in coastal waters. The IMREC Diary is a new citizen science project that gives anyone that fishes from the shore, a boat, or charter an opportunity to take part and collect information on their sea fishing effort and catches around the coastline. By doing so anglers will be playing a central role in data collection for the long-term conservation and sustainability of the resource for future generations.

The Irish Marine Recreational Angling (IMREC) project aims to answer three main questions:

• How many people fish?
• How often do they fish?
• What do they catch?

With the help of angler citizen scientists, we can answer some of these important questions. We have developed a free angling diary that allows sea anglers to log in and easily submit sessions on their phone or other device, thereby contributing to the evaluation of our marine stocks. Your personal diary will be your long-term record of your fishing. Your sessions will only be viewable by you and the IMREC team and none of your angling marks will be revealed.

If you want to get involved the IMREC Diary is now live and a full FAQ, along with further information on the project, is available at this link.

To take part, just send your name and email to seaangling@fisheriesireland.ie with the subject line “IMREC Diary Sign Up” and we will get you signed up!