“More than half of the Lake Vattern fishermen offered to take active part in the project, each bringing new ideas regarding preferred sampling design and fish behavior”
The first period of the project has been focussed on communicating with fishermen and regional authorities and working with fishermen on the design of joint sampling activities. So far, the response of fishermen has been positive, with fourteen commercial fishermen (>50%) offering to take active part in the project. Some 18 meetings, including 11 field sampling trips have taken place, covering both planning and information activities and joint research actions (see Case study page on web for details).
There is large variation regarding preferred sampling design and fishermens’ ideas concerning the behaviour and life-history of the target species. This is partly a consequence of different environments in different parts of the lake, but also potentially a result of fishermen having different histories and backgrounds. This has led to one-to-one researcher/fishermen meetings, which were carried out with all participating fishermen in order to design individual plans within the common theme of the case-study.
