Comment Data Used In Fishing On A Small Scale (Score 1) 35
I know this article is more about management than fishing effectiveness, but I will ignore that and share my anecdote, damnit! Having grown up in Southeast Alaska, I have fished since I was very young, and met numerous fisherman of just about every background and skill level. It was always interesting to me that one man in particular out-fished everyone else I have ever met (I'm talking about charter fishing, not commercial - so, small-scale stuff). This man kept a meticulous, digitized (and searchable) journal of every fish he ever caught - including location, size, weight, species, water temperature, current direction, weather, etc. Perhaps as an obvious result, this guy always knows were to go to get any kind of fish during any time of the year. In recent years, the stricter, necessary rules on all of the fisheries have made catching large quantities of fish significantly more difficult, but he is one of the few that will consistently catch the limit for multiple species nearly every trip. I always thought it was a cool to see such an effective use of data on a small scale. And it is a small scale - charter fishing is hardly one of the larger factors in depleted fisheries. In Alaska, at least.