Recreational angler satisfaction: What drives it?

Abstract

Satisfaction is the reward that recreational anglers receive from their experiences, and it constitutes a relevant management target. Angler satisfaction also shapes preferences for regulations, compliance with rules and general angler behaviours. Because of its central role in recreational fisheries management, it is important to understand what drives angler satisfaction. Our objective was to study the catch and non‐catch‐related determinants of recreational angler satisfaction using a standardized literature search and synthesizing the literature using meta‐analytical techniques. After identifying and screening 279 papers, we obtained K = 172 effect sizes extracted from N = 23 studies that met our inclusion criteria. A three‐level random‐effects model on Pearson's R, derived from studies relating component satisfaction to overall satisfaction assuming a sum‐of‐satisfaction model, was fitted. The aggregated effect sizes revealed that catch‐related (i.e. catch rate, size of caught fish, fish harvest) and two non‐catch‐related components (i.e. access to fishing sites and crowding) were most related to angler satisfaction. Other non‐catch components (e.g. environmental quality, facilities, perception of relaxation quality) also contributed to angler satisfaction but were of less importance, more variable across studies and in some cases not significant (e.g. perceived water quality, quality of social experience). We conclude changes to access to fishing sites, crowding and a reduction in catch qualities, will in many cases produce dissatisfied anglers. In the absence of local studies, focusing management attention on these components can be recommended if the aim is to satisfy anglers or avoid managerial or social issues that emerge from dissatisfied anglers.

The Human Dimensions of Recreational Anglers Targeting Freshwater Species in Coastal Ecosystems, with Implications for Management

“…This is a typical finding that has been well established in the literature (e.g., Driver and Knopf 1976;Fedler and Ditton 1994;Ross and Loomis 2001;Arlinghaus 2006;Beardmore et al 2011). However, it has previously been found that independent of the underlying motives, most anglers derive satisfaction from the catch aspects of fishing (Arlinghaus 2006;Birdsong et al 2021). In line with this, both expected CPUE and orientation toward catching many fish and trophy fish revealed that catch-related aspects were highly relevant, in agreement with other research from the UK on the motives of anglers targeting freshwater predators (Nolan et al 2019a).…”

Data‐poor stock assessment of fish stocks co‐exploited by commercial and recreational fisheries: Applications to pike Esox lucius in the western Baltic Sea

“…For many recreational fishers, measures of optimal fish status relate more to individual fish size and abundance (i.e. catch rate; Arlinghaus et al, 2014;Beardmore et al, 2015;Birdsong et al, 2021), rather than maximum biomass yield (Johnston et al, 2010), and the benefits of a fish stock to recreational fishers are thus usually maximised at lower fishing mortality rates than those that produce MSY (Ahrens et al, 2020;Hilborn, 2007;Radomski et al, 2001). For instance, size truncation reduces the satisfaction of those recreational fishers that prefer large pike in the catch (Arlinghaus et al, 2014(Arlinghaus et al, , 2020Beardmore et al, 2015).…”

Reducing Invasive Species Transport among Recreational Anglers: The Importance of Values and Risk Perceptions

“…Additionally, we suggest that anglers who strongly value the environment will be more concerned with the impacts of aquatic invasive species both to their local fishing site and to the environment more broadly given that biospheric values were far stronger predictors of risk perceptions. As guiding principles in life (Rokeach 1973), values are one of the most fundamental influences on environmental behavior that remain unchanged throughout the lifespan and could be incorporated in future fisheries research to complement the large body of work focused on angler satisfaction (Birdsong et al 2021).…”