Catch reporting in recreational fishing: Swedish anglers’ attitudes and preferences, and the effect of social factors

Abstract

Recreational fishing activities have the potential to negatively affect fish populations worldwide, but data about fishing pressure is lacking in many countries. The Swedish government anticipates tackling this problem by implementing a national catch reporting program. Through an online survey among members of the Swedish Anglers Association (±60.000 members), this study gathers the attitudes and preferences of Swedish anglers (n = 910) through a variety of statements relating to the potential introduction of a catch reporting program and investigates the effects of different social factors (consumptive orientation, motivations to fish, centrality to life and environmental attitude) on these attitudes and preferences. The results reveal that support for a potential catch reporting program was high for most anglers. Significant positive relationships were found between support for a catch reporting program and the sense of responsibility towards conservation issues, the desire to catch big fish and experiencing the environment as a motivation to fish. On the other hand, the desire to keep fish and catch large numbers of fish had a significant negative relationship with catch reporting support. Support for a mandatory catch reporting program increased with age, education level, income and years of fishing experience. Despite the generally positive attitude towards a potential catch reporting program, consumptive orientation, motivations to fish, environmental attitude and demographic characteristics were proven to play an important role in the anglers’ preferences towards catch reporting, and should not be overlooked when designing such a program. Our study shows that investigation of the social composition of an angler population is vital to obtain a better understanding of the diversity of attitudes and preferences towards recreational fisheries management, which can in turn facilitate implementation of management measures, such as catch reporting programs. Since this study focused only on members of the national angling association, who are likely more avid than non-members, additional research is needed to obtain results that are more representative of the total Swedish angler population.