CBSM Applied to Recreational Fishing - Marine Waters

Hi Tess,

The United States Environmental Protection Agency is working on a project addressing angler behavior as a part of the Palos Verdes Shelf Superfund Site in Southern California. One component of the outreach work deals with outreach to pier anglers and promotes the catch and release a locally contaminated fish called the white croaker. USEPA has recently completed a successful pilot project called the Take Home Fish Assessment which utilized CBSM to reduce the amount of white croaker anglers take into the community. The intervention consisted of one-on-one interactions between staff and pier anglers and the distribution of a tip card promoting the catch and release of the target fish. I'd be happy to share more information with you on this project. You can visit the website at www.pvsfish.org or you can email me at [email protected].

Best,

Tiffany Jonick
S. Groner Associates
United States

Hi Tess,

KESAB (Keep South Australia Beautiful) did some work a year or two ago on litter free fishing (awareness raising) in its 'Clean Marine - Litter Free Fishing' program that may be of interest - follow the 'Clean Marine' links on www.kesab.asn.au

Regards

Tony Jones
Clean Marine program coordinator

tony jones
KESAB
Australia

Hi Tess:

The Leave No Trace Organization (LNT)www.lnt.org has compiled a number of outdoor ethics booklets, one of which is specifically for sport anglers - although maybe more focused on freshwater. You may find the LNT messages and materials interesting; although, the organization may not lead to a particular fishing program.





lesa johnston
DFG
United States

In the next year or so we will be establishing a no-take research area within the boundraries of our sanctuary. Right now, fishing with very limited gear types is allowed throughout the sanctuary. When the rule goes in place, no fishing of an sort will be allowed in the research area-about one third of the sanctuary. I am interested in any idea about getting the word out to recreational angler who view the sanctuary as theri own private fishing grounds and about using CBSM to change that behavior.

Gail Krueger
Outreach & Communications Coordinator
NOAA Gray's Reef National Marine Sanctuary
United States

Hi Tess,

I would recommend connecting to the sports angling groups, and discussing this with them. They will know what types of messages would be most effective with their members. Responsible sports angler groups also understand and respect conservation biology, so my strategy would be to work from/provide them with the conservation biology base, and ask them to help you with strategy and messaging.

Norm (Ruttan)
iWasteNot Systems

Norm Ruttan
President
iWasteNot Systems
Canada
www.iwastenotsystems.com

Tess,

We also found that one-to-one interaction was the most effective for working with "regulars" who fish often. We did an EPA Environmental Justice project to reach out to anglers who were taking catfish from a contaminated reach of our river. What we found was that the angler community was actually made up of several communities, each with a very different goal. One important finding was that not all "sports fishermen" were doing it for sport; members of the African American community considered it an important way of supplying their churches with fish for Friday dinners and an important way to mentor younger community members. Likewise, there was a cultural component to the goal of many immigrant families who fished on the river. By getting to know why people fish we were able to better target our campaign and have it make more sense-- not everybody engages in sports fishing as a purely recreational activity, and that makes it more difficult to change their behavior with a one-size-fits-all approach.

Dr. Cynthia Annett
Scientist
Kansas Riverkeeper
United States
kansasriver.org

Hello again, I agree with Cynthia. It is really important to understand who will be receiving the message first, so you can understand what could make them change their behaviour. Time spent on the ground speaking with, and getting to know the concerns of anglers, may delay the program slightly, but will pay dividends in the long run.

Norm Ruttan
President
iWasteNot Systems
Canada
www.iwastenotsystems.com