COVID-19 influences on US recreational angler behavior

Recreational angling in the United States (US) is largely a personal hobby that scales up to a multibillion-dollar economic activity. Given dramatic changes to personal decisions and behaviors resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, we surveyed recreational anglers across the US to understand how the pandemic may have affected their fishing motivations and subsequent activities. Nearly a quarter million anglers from 10 US states were invited to participate in the survey, and almost 18,000 responded. Anglers reported numerous effects of the pandemic, including fishing access restrictions. Despite these barriers, we found that the amount of fishing in the spring of 2020 was significantly greater—by about 0.2 trips per angler—than in non-pandemic springs. Increased fishing is likely associated with our result that most respondents considered recreational angling to be a COVID-19 safe activity. Nearly a third of anglers reported changing their motivation for fishing during the pandemic, with stress relief being more popular during the pandemic than before. Driven partly by the perceived safety of social fishtancing, recreational angling remained a popular activity for many US anglers during spring 2020.

Muskellunge Management: Fifty Years of Cooperation Among Anglers, Scientists, and Fisheries Biologists

<em>Abstract</em>.—Changes in species-specific angler behaviors from harvest-oriented to voluntary release have the potential to alter fish population and community characteristics. In Escanaba Lake, Vilas County, Wisconsin, targeted and indirect Muskellunge <em>Esox masquinongy </em>angler behavior changed from harvest-oriented to primarily voluntary catch and release (C&R) during the mid-1990s. Since, the Muskellunge population has been lightly exploited (mean exploitation [<em>u</em>] < 0.05), despite no closed season, bag limit, or minimum length limit for Muskellunge, and can now be characterized as a C&R fishery. We tested for differences in Muskellunge adult density, age-0 relative abundance, and size structure indices as a consequence of changes in angler behavior and the subsequent reduction in exploitation. Prior to the shift in angler behavior, the Muskellunge population exhibited characteristics of an exploited fishery (e.g., lower adult size structure, high and more variable natural recruitment). After C&R practices became prevalent, the Muskellunge population exhibited characteristics of an unexploited fishery (e.g., larger adult size structure, low and less variable natural recruitment). Voluntary release of Muskellunge is an angler behavior that is well recognized and promoted among present-day anglers. We recommend that managers account for these changes in angler behavior and associated population responses and adjust management strategies accordingly. In particular, stocking practices and harvest regulations need to be evaluated to ensure that those strategies are not negatively influencing Muskellunge population dynamics and other associated fish community characteristics.

Linking the dynamics of harvest effort to recruitment dynamics in a multistock, spatially structured fishery

A freshwater sport fishery that targets hundreds of geographically isolated stocks is simulated by combining a model of angler behavior with a model of rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) population dynamics. Ideal free distribution (IFD) theory, which suggests that angling quality will be similar on all lakes, is used to drive angler effort distribution. Model parameters are based on creel survey data from 53 lakes and empirical relationships between growth, survival, and density derived from whole-lake density manipulations on nine lakes over a period of 10 years. We compared angling quality, population density, fish size, and yield under unfished conditions, harvest rates that maximize sustained yields (MSY), and an IFD equilibrium driven by angler behavior. The IFD equilibrium rarely maximized yields. Stocks with high MSY angling quality are overexploited at the IFD equilibrium because anglers move to take advantage of exceptional angling opportunities. These stocks would often be viewed as more resistant to harvest pressure because they have higher stock productivities and habitat capacities. However, in our model, they are systematically overharvested because their high fish density attracts excessive angling pressure. Conversely, stocks with low MSY angling quality are underexploited because anglers move to take advantage of better angling quality on other lakes.