Billfishes are both difficult to study and to manage because they are highly migratory and have very broad, patchy distributions across international jurisdictions. Marlins and sailfish are highly valued as recreational catch-and-release fish, however, often lack fisheries data that are required to assess stocks, which has led to uncertainty about stock status and a paucity of management controls.
The capacity to engage many recreational anglers in data collection is a cost-effective tool to gather information on billfish that would otherwise be logistically difficult to survey. Game fishers have contributed to billfish research as citizen scientists for many decades, and much of what we know about billfishes is derived from the game fishing industry. A great opportunity exists for researchers, fisheries managers, and game fishing organisations to collaborate to strategically improve our knowledge of billfish stocks and biology using citizen science. However, an important challenge is recruiting and maintaining the interest of citizen scientists.
My research uses an Australia-wide online survey of game fishers to examine the drivers and barriers to game fisher participation in citizen science programs used to research billfishes and explore possible ways to enhance such participation.