The CAST team at the Sea Angling Classic 2024

By Nellie Piat, visiting Intern, currently a 2nd year engineering student at the Institut Agro de Dijon, France.

Introduction

On June 21st and 22nd 2024, the CAST project team were present at the Sea Angling Classic in Port Solent, Portsmouth. For this event, 5 species are targeted: Bass, Bream, Tope, Smoothhound and Ray.

The Competition

Part of the CAST project team took part in the Sea Angling Classic, not as competitors, but as researchers. The Sea Angling Classic is a recreational fishing competition held in the Solent every year. This year 34 boats took part, enabling the CAST project team to collect essential data (including videos and photos) with the help and participation of the competitors.

Unsurprisingly, the competitors gave their all for the two days of fishing (8am – 2pm), with the aim of winning the first prize: a fully-equipped fishing boat! Throughout the two days, there were many twists and turns in the standings, leaving doubt right up to the end as to which team was the winner, which was none other than a Scottish team: Bluefin!

Our objectives

For this edition, the CAST project team had several objectives in mind:

1° : Collect video data using GoPros placed on all competition boats

2° : Communicate about the project to raise awareness and encourage as many anglers as possible to contribute to the acquisition of data useful to the CAST project

3° : Help competition organizers validate photos submitted by contestants for scoring and quality purposes

Our Involvement

For the installation of the GoPros, all the project members were able to show off their DIY talents by installing the GoPro brackets on all the boats the day before the competition. A special mention goes to the person who managed to make an extra hole in the the bracket with his screw and screwdriver…

The installation of the GoPros and their external batteries also took place the day before, as the boats left the port very early in the morning (well before the start of the competition) in search of the freshest bait possible.

As for communication, Professor Gordon Watson, Dr Christina Hunt and Georgina Banfield were able to present the CAST project at the competition briefing the evening before. They explained the main objectives of the project, and reassured the anglers about the use of the videos and photos collected at the end of the competition. The analysis of these data is mainly concerned with fishing periods, catch location and catch frequency for each of the 5 species; There is no question of analyzing the practices of the anglers during the competition (incidentally, the sound will be muted so as not to learn the vocabulary of competition fishing..!).

A scientific look at photo validation

In addition to data acquisition, Christina and Georgina put their knowledge to good use in validating the photo of the catches sent in by the competitors. For each image, a number of checks had to be carried out.

First of all, it is essential to identify the species caught. Even if the difference between a ray and a smoothhound seems obvious, the same cannot be said of a smoothhound and a tope. (Can you spot the differences between the two individuals on the right? One is a smoothhound and one is a tope…but which one?)

Other criteria, such as the presence of the catch identification card, the positioning of the angler’s hands on the fish or the length declared by the anglers, are among those verified for each photo.

An extra for the competition

For this edition, the BBC was present, an opportunity for Christina to raise the profile of the CAST project! To watch the program again, it’s just here :

https://www.facebook.com/SeaAnglingClassic/videos/1130922918163468

And for the article on the BBC website, just click here :
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c988z0eq404o

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