Fish life history, angler behaviour and optimal management of recreational fisheries
By F. Johnston, Robert Arlinghaus, Ulf Dieckmann. 2013
90 citations recorded by the source corpus.
To predict recreational-fishing impacts on freshwater fish species, it is important to understand the interplay between fish populations, anglers and management actions. We use an integrated bioeconomic model to study the importance of fish life-history type (LHT) for determining (i) vulnerability to over-exploitation by diverse angler types (generic, consumptive and trophy anglers), who respond dynamically to fishing-quality changes; (ii) regulations [i.e., minimum-size limits (MSLs) and licence densities] that maximize the social welfare of angler populations; and (iii) biological and social conditions resulting under such socially optimal regulations. We examine five prototypical freshwater species: European perch (Perca fluviatilis), brown trout (Salmo trutta), pikeperch (Sander lucioperca), pike (Esox lucius) and bull trout (Salvelinus confluentus). We find that LHT is important for determining the vulnerability of fish populations to overfishing, with pike, pikeperch, and bull trout being more vulnerable than perch and brown trout. Angler type influences the magnitude of fishing impacts, because of differences in fishing practices and angler-type-specific effects of LHT on angling effort. Our results indicate that angler types are systematically attracted to particular LHTs. Socially optimal minimum-size limits generally increase with LHT vulnerability, whereas optimal licence densities are similar across LHTs. Yet, both regulations vary among angler types. Despite this variation, we find that biological sustainability occurs under socially optimal regulations, with one exception. Our results highlight the importance of jointly considering fish diversity, angler diversity and regulations when predicting sustainable management strategies for recreational fisheries. Failure to do so could result in socially suboptimal management and/or fishery collapse.
Subfields: Ecology, Global and Planetary Change, Nature and Landscape Conservation
View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/d578a24b2da87be1bb537c5e57f13406858339f8
How researchers see this paper
The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.
In Ecology
In Global and Planetary Change
In Nature and Landscape Conservation
Citations in the corpus
- Recreational angler satisfaction: What drives it? (2021, background): “…including how anglers respond to (i) biological responses of fish to harvesting; (ii) social and economic changes; and (iii) management interventions (Arlinghaus et al., 2017, 2019; Carruthers et al., 2019; Hunt et al., 2013; Johnston et al., 2010, 2013; Matsumura et al., 2019; Post et al., 2008).”