Do Fish Drive Recreational Fishing License Sales?

Abstract

Management agencies need to understand the factors that influence fishing license purchases. While traits such as gender can influence the decisions of recreational fishers, a gap remains in understanding the influence of catchrelated fishing quality on these decisions. We evaluated the use of fish biomass density as a proxy for catch-related fishing quality along with non-catch-related factors (population density, gender, and ethnicity) to explain variation in 2014 resident fishing license rates across 510 origins in Ontario. License rates were higher in areas with lower population density (i.e., rural areas), in areas with higher fish biomass density, and among populations with stronger representation by ethnic majorities. From simulated scenarios, we predicted that resident license sales could increase between 14% and 25% if fish biomass density increased by 30% and 54% in northeastern and southern Ontario, respectively. However, license sales could decrease between 5% and 10% with a 30% redistribution of rural residents to a major urban area. The relationship between license rates and non-catch-related factors confirms the role of urbanization on recreational fishing participation, while catch-related factors provide support for a functional response by fishers to fish.

Landscape-scale social and ecological outcomes of dynamic angler and fish behaviours: processes, data, and patterns

“…But, there is much more richness to the network as participation rates in the fishery differ substantially across the landscape, with clear contrasts among large cities and small-towns. In the BRITISH COLUMBIArainbow trout fishery, we observed participation rates varying from 3.7% in the primarily urban Lower Mainland region to the northern, least urbanized region at 17.1% participation rate which is consistent with other landscape fisheries (Hunt et al 2017). Although researchers often indict the process of D r a f t urbanization and the disconnect of urban residents from nature as critical factors for reduced fishing participation (Arlinghaus et al 2015;Hunt et al 2017), an alternate explanation is that urban residents lack access to high quality fishing opportunities within reasonable travel time, due to historical overfishing.…”

“…In the BRITISH COLUMBIArainbow trout fishery, we observed participation rates varying from 3.7% in the primarily urban Lower Mainland region to the northern, least urbanized region at 17.1% participation rate which is consistent with other landscape fisheries (Hunt et al 2017). Although researchers often indict the process of D r a f t urbanization and the disconnect of urban residents from nature as critical factors for reduced fishing participation (Arlinghaus et al 2015;Hunt et al 2017), an alternate explanation is that urban residents lack access to high quality fishing opportunities within reasonable travel time, due to historical overfishing. This phenomenon has been described as producing low-quality fishing shadows around large cities, dissipating with distance, because of high urban effort, overfishing and collapse (Post et al 2002;2008;Post 2013).…”

“…In parallel to these stocking density experiments the research team has also completed a series of experiments in which angling regulations were altered with controls and fishing effort monitored providing additional potential to test landscape D r a f t scale prediction of this model. Additionally, historical license sales data may be investigated to attempt to relate predicted angling quality to a prediction of license sales (see Hunt et al 2017 for such an application). Note that even if responsiveness was inaccurate, the S-SES model may still provide information regarding management priorities.…”

How ecological processes shape the outcomes of stock enhancement and harvest regulations in recreational fisheries

“…In practice, management objectives often focus on improving fishing opportunities or maximizing license sales , Dabrowska et al 2014, Hunt et al 2017, rather than on individual angler satisfaction as we did, particularly if fisheries agencies depend on license income for funding. By contrast, local angling clubs under private fishing right systems in central Europe who are sufficiently funded likely focus more on angler satisfaction objectives and not whether stocking or any other measures recruits new members to clubs.…”

Recreational angling as a vector of freshwater invasions in Central Italy: perceptions and prevalence of illegal fish restocking

“…Moreover, Banha et al (2017a) obtained similar findings from a survey with recreational anglers in the Iberian peninsula, showing that fish were introduced for the convenience of having closer fishing spots providing anglers with a good angling experience. We believe that this aspect could have various implications for predicting and managing the deliberate spread of invasive fish species, as landscape affects angler's distribution and recruitment (Post et al, 2008;Hunt et al, 2017). Choice experiments or factorial survey could be very useful to characterize those fishing spots which are at risk of invasive fish release, not only in terms of their distance from anglers, but also on the basis of their attributes, like the density of recreational anglers or their natural surroundings (Rees et al, 2017).…”