By Capt. Ron Presley, Florida East Coast Fishing Examiner - June 6, 2012: A buzz word in fisheries management issues is “good science.” Good Science, however, will only occur if there is good data. The Angler Action Program (AAP) was created by the Snook and Gamefish Foundation (SGF), in partnership with FWC Marine Fisheries Management, to get anglers involved with science-based fishery management.
What started out as a collection process for a single species, the snook, expanded to redfish and spotted seatrout, tarpon, bonefish, and permit. Now, with anglers help, the program is collecting data on 100 inshore and offshore species.
The reasoning behind creating the program was explained by Rick Roberts, Executive Director of SGF. "With the threat of longstanding fishing closures, the time was right for recreational anglers at large to stop being viewed as the problem.” A program was needed to bring recreational anglers into the process.
(Continue reading at: http://www.examiner.com/article/fishery-data-collection-now-accomplished-by-smartphone?CID=examiner_alerts_article)