Winners Named in MD Volunteer Angler Survey Contest
Two anglers won $100 Bass Pro Shop gift cards for providing fishing trip information to the Maryland Volunteer Angler Survey last year. Taking home the prizes were Alisha Duquin of Hagerstown for reporting her observations to the multispecies freshwater portion, and Matt Stahl of Essex for supplying Yellow Perch information from his outing. The Maryland Department of Natural Resources relies on such anglers to provide data to help with fishery monitoring and management efforts.
“The angler survey is an important resource for fisheries science and management,” said DNR Recreational Fishing Data Coordinator Dr. Linda Barker. “For some species, this is our only source of information on released fish ─ an important part of analyzing fish populations and angler trends.”
This year’s winners were randomly selected from anglers who together submitted more than 800 reports. The contest is ongoing, so anyone who participates this year is automatically entered in the 2014 drawing.
To enter, an angler must simply log in to the survey and fill in their trip information with location, date, hours, number of anglers, method of fishing, and how many fish were kept and/or released. The more submissions, the better the odds.
“With March being the prime time for Yellow Perch fishing, we are calling on anglers to add observations on this species to the survey,” said Barker. “We also want to remind participants that reporting an outing with no caught fish is just as important for our studies as sharing days when the fishing was more successful.”
DNR revamped Maryland’s online Volunteer Angler Survey last year with a new look, more user friendly submission process, added fish species and prize incentives. The survey seeks fishing trip information involving Striped Bass, Summer Flounder, Yellow Perch, Bluefish, Smallmouth Bass, Largemouth Bass, Muskellunge, Blue Crabs, Catfish, Crappie, Bluegill, Pickerel and Northern Snakehead. The survey is Iocated at dnr.state.md.us/fisheries/survey/index.asp.
