Catchwise is an exciting new survey of sea angling taking place across England and Wales in 2023 and 2024. The project has been co-developed with the recreational sea angling community and aims to significantly improve recognition of sea angling’s value to coastal communities and inform relevant fisheries management decisions accurately. Catchwise will record data from sea anglers and charter boats across a 12-month period to understand who takes part in angling, how often they do it and what sorts of fishing they do, what they catch and how valuable sea angling is to local communities.

Catchwise will be the biggest single study of sea angling undertaken for over a decade and will involve a major shore and private boat survey of sea anglers as well as a survey of charter boats. The project will be delivered by Substance, the Angling Trust and Cefas.