[Coral-List] Fishing with bed nets survey - French version now available

[Gurung, Rajina]

Hi all,

I just wanted to let fellow coral listers know that there is now a French version available of the survey I am conducting which is looking at the global use of malaria bed nets for fishing incase. Please could you spare some time to fill in the survey, if you have already filled in the survey please consider sharing it with your networks, particularly in different countries (we are still looking for more responses from Asia and Latin America in particular)
Survey link here: http://bit.ly/1eRnxix <http://t.co/eeqYYxTxfl>
My study is looking at getting the first global perspective of the prevalence and characteristics of fishing with bed nets. We are looking for people who have travelled/worked/lived within malaria risk zones where small scale/artisanal fishing is practiced  to complete/share the short survey and interested in hearing from people whether you have or haven't observed bed nets being used for fishing. If you do not feel qualified to fill in the survey please share the survey to your networks / tweet about it as we are looking to get the word out!

Any information provided will lend a global context to this poorly understood and documented issue. If anyone has seen the practice up close or would like to discuss further please don't hesitate to get in touch. More info below.

Many thanks,
Rajina

Conservation Science MSc student
Imperial College London
Email: rajina.gurung14 at imperial.ac.uk
Skype: rajinagurung321
Follow me on twitter @rajinagurung

We are particularly interested in the degree to which bed nets distributed for malaria control are being used in fishing in different parts of the world. There are two groups of people who we are targeting this survey towards, anyone who has knowledge of small-scale and artisanal fishing, and anyone who is involved in malaria control efforts in fishing areas of developing countries. We would be very grateful if you could complete the survey if you belong to one of these two groups regardless of whether you have observed bed nets being used in fishing because we are interested in both positive and negative observations of net use. The survey should only take about 15 minutes to complete and it should take less time if you haven't seen fishing with bed nets.

There have been a number of reports of bed nets being used for fishing, but these have been anecdotal or local. This study will give the first global perspective on the use of insecticide-treated bed nets for fishing which is concerning conservationists because of the very small mesh size of the nets, the perceived rapidly increasing prevalence of use of these nets, and the potential for the insecticide treated nets causing environmental pollution. This will increase understanding of the scale and methods of fishing with bed nets and its role in people’s livelihoods so that we can provide advice on how to manage this growing phenomenon.

This questionnaire is part of an MSc research project by Rajina Gurung, from Imperial College London, in partnership with Zoological Society of London.. The information you give will provide a valuable insight into this extremely poorly understood and documented issue. Your responses are anonymous and confidential, and general trends will be reported rather than specifics. We will be careful to ensure that our research does not harm local people in the areas of study, and that we maintain the highest ethical standards.