The Pat Smith Database gives us lots of opportunity to speak to skippers and anglers, some of which contribute their catch data to science projects and other organisations. 

 

Sadly in many cases have been shocked to hear that the purpose the data was going to be used for had not been fully explained, either verbally or in writing by the collecting person/organisation.

 

It's also very common to find that the person/organisation requesting the data have not made the skipper/angler aware of their rights under the General Data Protection Regulations, more often referred to as GDPR.

 

Compliance with GDPR in the UK is mandatory and requires the person/organisation you share your data with to provide you with a copy or access to their Privacy Policy.

 

The GDPR is a comprehensive piece of regulation but in general it gives the data contributor the right to:

 

1. be told how their data will be used

2. have a copy of all the data they have provided

3. correct the data

4. have it removed from the collecting person/organisations database

5. stop their data being used

6. obtain the data to use for their own purposes

7. have the data excluded from any activity or process which uses their data

 

In short the data flow is too often all one way, from the skipper/angler to the collecting person/organisation, never to be seen again. 

 

Recreational sea angling data is recognised as being of exceptional quality and due to the sheer number of anglers going fishing every day the recreational sea angling community have the unique ability to collect data over a wide area and timeline.

 

Recreational sea angling data can be viewed as the “family silver” of the sport and in our opinion skippers/anglers should be very protective of it. This is not to say that it should never be shared but rather it should only be shared when you have full knowledge of how it will be used and that your rights under GDPR are fully respected by the collecting person/organisation.

 

If you would like to discuss any data sharing projects which you are presently actively involved in, or are considering joining, we would be very happy to discuss those with you to help you take the necessary actions to protect your data and have control over how and what it is used for.