EAA Member Angling Trust continues its work with the University of Plymouth under the Angling for Sustainability project

EAA's Member Angling Trust (UK) – together with the University of Plymouth, the Professional Boatman's Association, Southern IFCA and Natural England – are working together in the “Angling for Sustainability” project, a Fisheries Industry Science Partnership, funded by the UK Government.

Recreational fishing is economically and socially important along the South Coast of England, however, little is known about the species it depends on. Hence the importance of this multi-stakeholder project focussing on black bream, tope and smooth-hound shark and rays. The selected regions Dorset and the Solent have been chosen as they are major hotspots for recreational angling, with recreational charter businesses receiving more revenue than commercial fishing in ports such as Poole.

Angling for Sustainability – initiated in January 2023 – is a great example of the power of collaboration from several key stakeholders such as University researchers, skippers, and recreational anglers working together to improve fisheries science and conservation.

The Angling for Sustainability project is focussing on important species for recreational fishing in the Dorset and Solent region (along UK South coast) such as black bream, smooth hound, tope, and ray species, this by aiming to bridge data gaps on recreationally valuable species by using acoustic telemetry, a type of tagging and tracking technology.

The project is investigating the nesting site fidelity, habitat use, fisheries interactions, and wider migration patterns of black bream in Dorset. It also focusses on studying the habitat use, migration patterns, and site fidelity of elasmobranch species like tope, starry smooth-hound, and undulate ray in the Solent area.

 
Last month, members of the Angling for Sustainability team headed out to sea from Poole in Dorset (United Kingdom) for their 2024 black bream tagging season. They managed to get another 30 black bream acoustically tagged. The project consortium plans tagging a total of 200 fish. As the current knowledge on black bream is rather limited, every tagged fish helps improve the overall understanding of the species. The Angling for Sustainability project has – in 2023 – already successfully tagged 136 black bream in Dorset.

When having caught a tagged fish or shark, more information on what to do and how to report it can be found on this website

Learn more about the project on the Angling Trust’s website