Seven years of data collection through an electronic angler citizen science platform: lessons learned

Electronic citizen science platforms has been highlighted in recent years, often in combination with smartphone applications, as a useful tool in management of recreational fisheries. This apply to data collection for research and management and as a tool to educate and inform recreational fishers such as anglers. One such platform is the Danish electronic citizen science platform “Fangstjournalen” developed by DTU Aqua and launched in 2016. Since then, about 16.000 anglers have signed up for the platform and registered approximately 80.000 fishing trips. Here we present some of the lessons learned from the first years driving this platform. The main challenges relate to participation, e.g., the inability to recruit participants who are representatives of the general angling population and from all recreational fisheries. Despite this, data quality evaluations also indicate that data in several cases was good and similar to that of traditional survey methods. Further, the citizen science approach makes it possible to explore management topics that traditional survey methods would not have allowed for.