SACN Ireland Online Survey

Hi all please take some time and fill in our online survey

[url=http://www.sacn-online.org/survey.php]SACN online survey[/url]

We hope to use the conclusions drawn from the data you and other recreational sea anglers provide to help form political opinion and hopefully effect some changes. In other countries, there is a growing awareness of the social, economic and other benefits that recreational sea angling can provide. As such, anglers in other countries are treated as important stakeholders in the marine environment and are invited to participate in policy formulation. We lack this right at the moment in Ireland but hope that information such as that provided by this survey will help anglers here get to that position.


cheers

Andy Elliott

Andy, this is a great idea. The DEFRA Regulatory Impact Assessment for the recent bass MLS change contained some interesting economic figures for recreational angling in the UK, and bass angling in particular. It would be good to have similar figures for Ireland.

Hopefully as many anglers as possible will fill out the survey.

Have you considered doing a paper survey to include the anglers who don't use the internet?

We have looked at ways of making the survey open to as many anglers as possible. There are problems associated with a 'paper' survey in terms of the logistics of getting them printed and distributed, getting them returned and then doing the necessary data input to get the results stored.

Both Andy and I are doing this on a voluntary basis in our 'spare' (there's a laugh) time and the current structure of the SACN sort of forbids us raising cash to cover stuff like printing surveys etc. Which is why, so far anyway, it's only web-based. We haven't given up on the idea of a paper survey yet.

There are other paper options we are looking at and we'll see if these are feasible. If it turns out they are, be sure we'll implement them. One factor in any paper based survey is the cost of posting back the surveys. In an ideal world, we'd have the funds to provide a freepost envelope with every survey, and they'd be available in any tackle shop in the country.

The whole trick to getting as many returns as possible is to provide the survey in formats that makes it quick, easy and if possible, free for anglers. It's bad enough that we have to resort to these measures to get back what is already rightfully the property of anglers as much as anyone in the country, and not just exclusively the commercials.

If anyone has any suggestions on getting the survey out there, plase feel free to speak up.

If you have angling mates who want to contribute to the survey and are unable to access a computer etc, drop a post on the SACN-Ireland forums or PM Andy or me through them and we'll see what we can come up with.

We obviously coded in a variety of safeguards to avoid the 'well-meaning-if-misguided' trying to submit a pile of responses.
However, we did leave the provision when coding to allow us to do data input for surveys that might for whatever reason not come from the web, for example, so there are options.

Thanks to everyone who has completed the survey so far. Please encourage anyone you can to fill it in. It will make a difference.

I have just completed the survey and would urge all forum members to do the same.

As of last month, I have been asked to join the Eastern River Basin District Advisory Council. I am respresenting the Leinster council of the IFSA and the Water Framework Directive that we will be helping frame covers subjects such as water quality, resource management ( recreational and economic ), pollution, abstraction, coastal defences etc.

The coastline covered by the ERBD is from Drogheda to Arklow.

I can confirm from the first meeting that while there is an appreciation that anglers are a contributor to the purse with regard to the leisure income return for the area, the extent is under-valued due to a lack of information. Game anglers have their act together when it comes to putting a real value on their pursuits and are well respresented on the councils though I am the only sea-angler.

I will do my upmost to highlight the opinions and concerns of sea-anglers at this council. Please PM me if you have any ideas on this matter.

I think even at this early stage, Andy and I could furnish you with some data that might scare people.....

scare in a positive sense i hope...

Well, lets put it like this: If I was a sitting politician or indeed a whole government, I'd be touching cloth.

All the data isn't in yet. Indeed, for a wide number of reasons, it'll never all be in.

But those who have filled out the survey have provided all the information any thinking individual (even a politician) would need already.

The more data that comes in from the survey, based on trends so far, the more credible the case will be. I can't bias the survey by releasing detailed preliminary results, but I'll tell you now, it makes for damn interesting reading.

im taking that as positive so - good luck with the collation

Could you change this survey to 2006? I cant remember 2005!!!!

any results yet, as I filled it out afew months back.

We're working on it now and *hopefully* will have the results in the next week or so.