Human activities are the leading cause of biological invasions that cause ecologic and economic damage around the world. Aquatic invasive species (AIS) are often spread by recreational anglers who visit two or more bodies of water within a short time frame. Movement data from anglers are, therefore, critical to predicting, preventing, and monitoring the spread of AIS. However, the lack of broad-scale movement data has restricted efforts to large and popular lakes or small geographic extents. Here, we show that recreational fishing apps are an abundant, convenient, and relatively comprehensive source of “big” movement data across the contiguous United States. Our analyses revealed a dense network of angler movements that was dramatically more interconnected and extensive than the network that is formed naturally by rivers and streams. Short-distanced movements by anglers combined to form invasion superhighways that spanned the contiguous United States. We also identified possible invasion fronts and invaded hub lakes that may be superspreaders for two relatively common aquatic invaders. Our results provide unique insight into the national network through which AIS may be spread, increase opportunities for interjurisdictional coordination that is essential to addressing the problem of AIS, and highlight the important role that anglers can play in providing accurate data and preventing invasions. The advantages of mobile devices as both sources of data and a means of engaging the public in their shared responsibility to prevent invasions are probably general to all forms of tourism and recreation that contribute to the spread of invasive species.

Angler attitudes and behavior are important factors in fisheries management, but time consuming and expensive to quantify. Analyzing the text that anglers contribute to online forums may be a fast and cost‐effective alternative. We applied sentiment analysis to almost 3 years of management‐related posts on online angling forums to estimate the long‐term satisfaction of walleye (Sander vitreus) anglers in nine U.S. states. Sentiment varied four‐fold among states. Consistent with the literature, our random forest model found that sentiment increased with angler density, bag limit, and season length. Relatively unimportant factors were fishing license cost, the frequency of special walleye regulations, the degree to which management agencies communicated with anglers through social media, and the importance of angling to the state economy. Our results support the hypothesis that online text can provide insight into the satisfaction of anglers who post on online forums. Future research should explore social listening as a low‐cost method for tracking angler satisfaction at finer spatial and temporal scales, and for other game fishes. This work contributes to a growing interest in exploring and validating the use of online data within systems of harvest management and governance.