Inland Recreational Fisheries Research Articles

Inland recreational fisheries contribute nutritional benefits and economic value but are vulnerable to climate change.

Inland recreational fishing is primarily considered a leisure-driven activity in freshwaters, yet its harvest can contribute to food systems. Here we estimate that the harvest from inland recreational fishing equates to just over one-tenth of all reported inland fisheries catch globally. The estimated total consumptive use value of inland recreational fish destined for human consumption may reach US$9.95 billion annually. We identify Austria, Canada, Germany and Slovakia as countries above the third quantile for nutrition, economic value and climate vulnerability. These results have important implications for populations dependent on inland recreational fishing for food. Our findings can inform climate adaptation planning for inland recreational fisheries, particularly those not currently managed as food fisheries.

Investigating Relationships Between Catch Per Unit Effort (CPUE) and Some Angler Characteristics in the Turkish Inland Recreational Fisheries: A Case Study from Uluabat Lake

In this study it is aimed that determining effect of some social and demographic properties on Catch Per Unit Effort (CPUE) in Uluabat Lake anglers. A total of 375 interview applied with angler from April 2015 to May 2016 monthly period. Mean CPUE values of each angler was estimated as 1.36 fish/hr (0.08-5.67). Generalized additive models (GAMs) was used for evaluating the data set. Variables used in model were age of angler (X1), experience of angler (X2), annual total fishing day (X3), total value of fishing equipment (X4), monthly total income of anglers (X5), household number of anglers (X6) and CPUE of anglers (Y). Effect of all variables on the CPUE were founded not significant (p>0.05), except “Annual total fishing day” (p>0.05). The variables such as monthly total income of anglers, experience of angler, total value of angling equipment and annual total fishing day positively affected CPUE.

Estimating lentic recreational fisheries catch and effort across the United States

AbstractRecreational fisheries represent a socially, ecologically, and economically significant component of global fisheries. The U.S. Inland Creel and Angler Survey Catalog (CreelCat) database includes inland recreational fisheries survey data across the United States to facilitate large‐scale analyses. However, because survey methods differ, a statistical method capable of integrating these surveys is necessary to assess patterns and relationships across regions. Here, we developed a hierarchical generalized linear mixed modeling approach to estimate the relationship between daily recreational fisheries catch and effort based on waterbody, socio‐economic, and ecological covariates. We applied this approach to CreelCat data on lentic waterbodies and found that recreational fisheries catch and effort were non‐linearly related (i.e., catch per unit of effort declined as effort increased), where effort varied regionally and by waterbody area, median county age, and distance to nearest primary road. This modeling approach could be used to inform data‐poor regions or waterbodies, make comparisons across spatial scales, and, with the inclusion of socio‐economic and ecological factors, inform management techniques in an era of shifting demographics and landscapes.

Waterbody size predicts bank- and boat-angler efforts

Bank- and boat-angler efforts are logistically difficult and costly to estimate, preventing landscape-scale estimates that are required to address current and future challenges (e.g., climate change, invasive species) for inland recreational fisheries. Using a large Nebraska, USA, recreational fishery dataset (N = 67 waterbodies), we demonstrate that waterbody size can be used to predict bank- and boat-angler efforts across a heterogeneous landscape of extra small (< 104 ha) and large (> 647 ha) waterbodies. Bank and boat anglers respond to waterbody size, however these relationships appear to be unique between the two angler types. Boat-angler efforts increased as a function of waterbody size, whereas bank-angler efforts increased as a function of waterbody size for extra small waterbodies but not for large waterbodies. The ability to connect waterbody size and angler effort will be important for continued effective inland fisheries management.

Gross mismatches between salmonid stocking and capture record data in a large Alpine lake basin in Northern Italy suggest a low stocking effectiveness for an endangered native trout

Stocking of native and non-native fish species is a widespread practice commonly used to enhance inland recreational fisheries, appropriate when intense harvesting and the degradation or lack of suitable habitat decrease the abundance of the managed species below carrying capacity. In spite of its popularity, this practice is often poorly informed by scientific information. Salmonids are arguably the most popular and commercially valuable freshwater fishes being managed for recreational fisheries. Stocking of both native and non-native taxa has been practiced for almost two centuries in Europe, dramatically altering the structure and function of riverine and lacustrine ecosystems. In the Verbano-Cusio Ossola Province, northern Italy, within the Lake Maggiore catchment, we measured large numerical mismatches between stocking of cultured native (Salmo marmoratus) plus non-native trout taxa (S. trutta, S. ghigii, Oncorhynchus mykiss) and the number of fishes captured by local anglers. These observations highlight the need for future studies to estimate the stocking effectiveness of S. marmoratus, a critically endangered species of significant cultural and economic value.

Ice fishing reveals size structure but not abundance of Eurasian perch in small boreal lakes

AbstractManagement of inland recreational fisheries would benefit from stock abundance and size structure data. Feasibly standardised angling methods such as ice fishing could produce representative catch‐per‐unit‐effort (CPUE) information on the abundance of different‐sized fish in small lakes. Here, we first used standard Nordic multimesh gillnets to obtain number‐per‐unit‐effort (NPUE), biomass‐per‐unit‐effort (BPUE) and size structure data on Eurasian perch (Perca fluviatilis) stocks in 11 small boreal lakes in summer. Second, the same lakes were ice‐fished by voluntary anglers using a pre‐defined, loosely standardised protocol to obtain angling‐based NPUE, BPUE, and length frequency distributions. Effects of environmental variables such as water oxygen concentration and light penetration on angling catch rates were controlled statistically. Neither perch Nordic gillnet NPUE nor BPUE corresponded to ice‐fishing CPUEs. However, the length distribution of the catch did not differ between methods. Our results imply that traditional ice fishing applying natural baits is relatively unselective for fish size and could produce valid length‐based indicators for management purposes while angling CPUE was poorly related to Nordic gillnet CPUE.

Factors contributing to anglers’ satisfaction and their requests concerning recreational salmonid fisheries management: Insights from a questionnaire survey in strictly regulated, catch-and-release stream fishing areas

Regional fisheries managers need to consider anglers’ satisfaction and requests and balance them with resource conservation when making decisions to promote the sustainability of recreational fisheries. However, there is a marked paucity of information on inland recreational fisheries, particularly in non-Western countries. This study was designed to gain insight on the factors contributing to the anglers' satisfaction and their requests concerning salmonid recreational fisheries management. The approach used was a questionnaire survey of salmonid anglers in two strictly regulated, reservation-only, catch-and-release stream fishing areas in Japan. We evaluated the relationships among anglers’ characteristics and the fishing experience with their satisfaction degree. We also investigated the anglers’ requests concerning the use of fishing license proceeds. The catch numbers of the larger masu salmon available in the area (e.g., 20–40 cm standard length) were positively related to the satisfaction degree of anglers. This study confirms the findings on the determinants of anglers’ satisfaction in Western countries, especially concerning avid anglers. The highest priority for using the fishing license proceeds was for enhancing the number of fish and conserving the fish habitats. Surprisingly, enhancing the number of large fish received the lowest priority among the requests. These results suggest that anglers’ requests for recreational fisheries management do not necessarily reflect their preference to catch more and larger fish. Thus, reflecting only the anglers’ requests and discontinuing stocking the special areas with large fish could paradoxically reduce the anglers’ satisfaction. These results strongly point out that understanding the factors contributing to anglers' satisfaction is crucial to avoid misunderstandings and make sounder and more sustainable recreational fisheries management decisions.

Dynamic Interdependence between Anglers and Fishes in Spatially Coupled Inland Fisheries

The cumulative harvest pressure exerted by recreational anglers can be intense in some locations. Sustainable management and conservation of inland fisheries requires an understanding of the spatial ecology of fish-angler interactions (e.g., direct, indirect, and feedback). Advancement towards this goal requires study of the complex interdependencies of human and natural systems, which can be achieved, in part, by looking beyond the wetted confines of individual waterbodies towards the broader angling landscape. It has been hypothesized that fish stocks should experience strong reductions in areas near large aggregations of recreational anglers where fishing effort is presumed to be greatest. To test this hypothesis, we examined a complex of direct, indirect, and feedback effects among recreational anglers, bluegill sunfish Lepomis macrochirus, and largemouth bass Micropterous salmoides across inland recreational fisheries (n = 29 reservoirs) using path analysis and structural equation modeling. We found that recreational anglers imparted detectable effects on recreational bluegill (direct) and bass (indirect) fisheries across the landscape, which we attributed to (1) short travel distances of individuals at local scales (&lt;40 km), and (2) a spatially and numerically heterogeneous distribution of anglers (i.e., anglers within counties) at the regional scale. Our study identified the presence of an emergent landscape-scale feedback, driven by angler numbers, mediated via angling effects on bluegill and bass populations, and which manifested as spatially variable movements of anglers. These dynamics collectively shaped inland fisheries across the landscape via a suite of direct, indirect, and feedback effects and highlight the complex relationships between fishes and anglers. Consideration of direct and indirect effects of angling pressure from the landscape should aid in prioritizing or identifying areas in need of management, conservation, public outreach, and education, and improve understanding of how changes to one or many species may feedback to other social, ecological, and economic systems.

Global dataset of species-specific inland recreational fisheries harvest for consumption

Inland recreational fisheries, found in lakes, rivers, and other landlocked waters, are important to livelihoods, nutrition, leisure, and other societal ecosystem services worldwide. Although recreationally-caught fish are frequently harvested and consumed by fishers, their contribution to food and nutrition has not been adequately quantified due to lack of data, poor monitoring, and under-reporting, especially in developing countries. Beyond limited global harvest estimates, few have explored species-specific harvest patterns, although this variability has implications for fisheries management and food security. Given the continued growth of the recreational fishery sector, understanding inland recreational fish harvest and consumption rates represents a critical knowledge gap. Based on a comprehensive literature search and expert knowledge review, we quantified multiple aspects of global inland recreational fisheries for 81 countries spanning ~192 species. For each country, we assembled recreational fishing participation rate and estimated species-specific harvest and consumption rate. This dataset provides a foundation for future assessments, including understanding nutritional and economic contributions of inland recreational fisheries.

Valuing Angling on Reservoirs Using Benefit Transfer

AbstractEconomic assessments are rarely applied to inland recreational fisheries for management purposes, especially when compared to fish, habitat, and creel assessments, yet economic assessments can provide critical information for management decisions. We provide a brief overview of economic value, key terminology, and existing economic techniques to address these issues. Benefit transfer, a technique used to measure economic value when an original analysis is not practicable, is conducted by drawing on existing estimates of economic value in similar contexts. We describe an application of benefit transfer to measure the economic value of several recreational fisheries in Nebraska, USA. We examine two approaches to benefit transfer—value transfer and function transfer—which we demonstrate estimate similar economic values for fishing site access but substantially different economic values for catch rate improvements at some reservoirs. We encourage agencies that are responsible for inland recreational fisheries management to consider economic assessment, especially benefit transfer, as a critical tool in the management toolbox.

Overturning stereotypes: The fuzzy boundary between recreational and subsistence inland fisheries

AbstractInland recreational fisheries provide numerous socio‐economic benefits to fishers, families and communities. Recreationally harvested fish are also frequently consumed and may provide affordable and sustainable but undervalued contributions to human nutrition. Quantifying the degree to which recreationally harvested fish contribute to food security and subsistence is impeded by lack of data on harvest and consumption and by the difficulty in differentiating among recreational and subsistence fisheries. Recreational harvest records tend to be limited to wealthy, food‐secure countries and well‐monitored fisheries with clear regulations or permitting systems. These records often neglect components of recreational harvest among food‐insecure fishers who are potentially more likely to have consumption as a motivation. Here, we highlight the ‘fuzzy boundary’ that can exist between inland recreational and subsistence fisheries and argue that unreported consumption is likely to be a hidden contributor to food security in some populations. We draw on local case studies from around the world to highlight specific instances where recreationally harvested fish species contribute food and subsistence benefits to participating communities. We use these examples to highlight the diversity of ways that inland recreational fisheries contribute to human nutrition, knowledge gaps in understanding recreational fishing for food, and consequences of not accounting for them as food fisheries in policy and management. The aim of this paper is to draw the attention of resource managers and policy makers, create greater social awareness of the importance of recreational fisheries and bring to light this hidden contribution of inland fisheries to nutrition and subsistence.

Dysfunctional information feedbacks cause the emergence of management panaceas in social-ecological systems: The case of fish stocking in inland recreational fisheries

Social-ecological systems are characterized by interconnections between social (e.g., angler communities) and ecological systems (e.g., fish populations in lakes and rivers). One means by which human actions feedback on ecosystems is through management actions, some of which are controversial due to the possible downsides for biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. In complex systems, sub-optimal management strategies may become entrenched. In such cases, leverage points must be identified to escape undesirable stable states. Based on a review of published and grey literature about the management practice of fish stocking in German inland recreational fisheries, we describe key pathways characterizing social-ecological interactions and resulting outcomes. The pathways we review suggest that missing or dysfunctional information feedbacks predispose privately governed fisheries-management systems typical of Germany to develop stocking as a panacea in operational management. Similar outcomes are likely in open access recreational fisheries. Three key feedback cycles reinforce each other to maintain stocking in the manager's toolbox. The first is that the lack of dedicated monitoring in many fisheries and ignorance of research results breaks a feedback signal from the management measure of stocking to the evaluation of outcomes. The lack of ability of those involved in stocking to conclusively learn when stocking works and when it fails to deliver additive effects reinforces personal norms by managers and anglers that stocking may be necessary to sustain fisheries. A related second feedback is that stocking may increase catch rates in the short-term, which increases angler expectations for catch and stocking as a safeguard of the catch, in turn fostering linear cause-and-effect mental models and the emergence of a pro-stocking social norm among anglers. A third key feedback is among hatchery operators and fisheries managers in fishing clubs, where hatchery operators are often key informants about stocking practices while concurrently having commercial interests to sell fish for stocking. This creates economic incentives that perpetuate stocking. The amount of resource investments by angler communities through stocking is additionally fostered and maintained by monetary resource availability, size and type of ecosystem that is managed and governance processes as well as political inertia. Thus, the maintenance of stocking as a panacea is intimately linked to a range of psychological, social, economic and governance drivers. We use our case study to illustrate how information-related feedback loops can trap natural resource management strategies into a suboptimal basin of attraction, and provide recommendations on leverage points to possibly break these loops. Collaborative active adaptive management of natural resources and reducing the temptation to rely on economic incentives by hatcheries may be needed to introduce possibilities for learning and thereby avoid the entrenchment of stocking and related activities as a panacea. The lessons learned around stocking are applicable to a range of social-ecological issues in recreation and planning whenever feedback flows of information are critical to direct management and when these flows are either distorted by disinformation, wrong incentives or not present at all. The study has several implications for fisheries and natural resource management:-Establishment of regular monitoring systems that are trusted by stakeholder can be recommended and is key to break dysfunctional information feedbacks and move social-ecological systems, such as recreational fisheries, on more sustainable trajectories.-Changing fish stocking under private fishing right systems can happen either through bottom-up approaches based on co-production of knowledge and using principles of adaptive management or from the top-down by implementing hard constraints on the possibility for self-organized stocking policies.-The former strategy will be more time-consuming and may fail in some situations, but is likely to create less conflicts and more durable outcomes from a social perspective.-Alternative to fish stocking, such as improvement of habitats or harvest constraints, should be considered whenever feasible. Establishment of regular monitoring systems that are trusted by stakeholder can be recommended and is key to break dysfunctional information feedbacks and move social-ecological systems, such as recreational fisheries, on more sustainable trajectories. Changing fish stocking under private fishing right systems can happen either through bottom-up approaches based on co-production of knowledge and using principles of adaptive management or from the top-down by implementing hard constraints on the possibility for self-organized stocking policies. The former strategy will be more time-consuming and may fail in some situations, but is likely to create less conflicts and more durable outcomes from a social perspective. Alternative to fish stocking, such as improvement of habitats or harvest constraints, should be considered whenever feasible.

A Resist‐Accept‐Direct decision‐support tool for walleye Sander vitreus (Mitchill) management in Wisconsin

AbstractLarge‐scale modelling and prediction provide insight into general influences of climate change on inland recreational fisheries; however, small‐scale dynamics and local expertise will be key in developing explicit goals for managing recreational fisheries as the climate changes. The resist‐accept‐direct (RAD) framework encompasses the entire decision space managers consider when addressing climate influences in their local system, but to decide whether to resist, accept or direct, managers need tools to understand how specific waterbodies will be influenced by climate change. Here, a decision‐support tool was developed and applied to the walleye recreational fishery in Wisconsin, USA as an example of how to link the RAD framework to real‐world management of a large recreational fishery. The tool and broadscale results described here, indicating a widespread shift away from resist strategies by mid‐century, can be used by managers to inform decisions about whether to resist, accept, or direct for specific walleye populations.

A bright spot analysis of inland recreational fisheries in the face of climate change: learning about adaptation from small successes

Inland recreational fisheries have social, economic, and ecological importance worldwide but these fisheries are increasingly challenged by the diverse effects of climate change. Coupled with other anthropogenic stressors, climate change has contributed to declines in freshwater biodiversity of greater severity than those observed across marine or terrestrial taxa. At a macro level, inland fisheries are experiencing declines. There are, however, a number of success stories, or ‘bright spots,’ in inland recreational fisheries management, where innovative approaches are leading to increases in social and ecological well-being in the face of climate change. Cases such as these are important sources of inspiration and learning about adaptation to climate and environmental change. In this article, we analyze 11 examples of such ‘bright spots’ drawn from multiple jurisdictions around the world from which we extracted lessons that might apply to fisheries management challenges beyond the region and context of each case. Collectively, these bright spots highlight adaptive initiatives that allow for recreational fisheries management to mitigate to stressors associated with current and future climate change. Examples identified include community-based restoration projects, collaborative and adaptive approaches to short-term fisheries closures, transdisciplinary large-scale conservation projects, and conservation-minded efforts by individuals and communities. By highlighting examples of ‘small wins’ within inland recreational fisheries management, this review contributes to the idea that a ‘positive future’ for inland recreational fisheries in the face of climate change is possible and highlights potential strategies to adapt to current and future climate scenarios.

Climate change will render size‐selective harvest of cold‐water fish species unsustainable in Mediterranean freshwaters

Abstract Climate change is impacting the composition and functioning of virtually every ecosystem on Earth, and disrupting the productivity of exploited ones. Species are rapidly adjusting to their changing environments through evolutionary and/or plastic phenotypic changes in behavioural, physiological, phenological and life‐history traits. Size‐selective harvest produces severe demographic impacts on exploited populations and induces individual phenotypic changes in many of the same fitness‐related traits as climate change and thus can impair local adaptation and acclimation. We addressed in the context of inland recreational fisheries two interrelated questions: (1) Will fisheries‐induced phenotypic changes operate at different rates and direction than those induced by climate change, and thus hinder local adaptation and acclimation, threatening population persistence?; (2) which harvest regulations most likely lead to overexploitation of populations under the new environmental conditions? We used an eco‐genetic individual‐based model to simulate the consequences of size‐selective fishing for a cold‐water fish species brown trout Salmo trutta across a range of regulatory (defined by exploitation rate and size‐based limits) and environmental scenarios (warming vs. concurrent warming and streamflow reduction) in a Mediterranean system. We ran 1,620 combinations of fishing and environmental scenarios and analysed results using artificial neural networks. In our simulations, (a) climate change and size‐selective fishing both led to a reduced, truncated population, with increased juvenile but decreased adult growth and earlier maturation at smaller size, but fisheries‐induced changes were stronger than those produced by climate change; (b) their effects were additive or dampened but rarely synergistic and (c) phenotypic changes in fitness‐related traits resulted from both evolutionary and plastic processes. Synthesis and applications. Our model‐based analyses highlight that any size‐selective fishing regime would lead to the overexploitation of cold‐water freshwater fish populations if climate warming is accompanied by streamflow reduction—as projected in Mediterranean fisheries. Even if we assumed no future streamflow regime changes, only a limited range of size‐based harvest regulations may provide an acceptable balance between conservation and fishery objectives. Thus, recreational fisheries of cold‐water fish in Mediterranean climates might be more sustainably managed under climate change if conservation‐oriented strategies based on harvest bans (e.g. catch‐and‐release fishing) were implemented.

A spatial–temporal approach to modeling somatic growth across inland recreational fisheries landscapes

We develop a mechanistically motivated von Bertalanffy growth model to estimate growth rate and its predictors from spatial–temporal data and compare this model’s performance with a suite of commonly used mixed-effects growth models. We test these models with simulated data and then apply them to test whether concerns that high density is causing growth suppression of walleye (Sander vitreus) in Alberta, Canada, are supported using data collected during 2000–2017. Simulation experiments demonstrated that models that failed to account for complex dependency structures often resulted in growth rate estimates that were less accurate and biased low as judged by median absolute relative error and median relative error, respectively. The magnitude of this bias depended on the parameter values used for simulation. For the case study, a spatial–temporal model was more parsimonious and had higher predictive performance relative to simpler models and did not support the slow-growing walleye hypothesis in Alberta. These findings demonstrate the importance of considering spatial–temporal correlation in analyses that rely on surveillance-style monitoring datasets, particularly when examining relationships between life-history traits and environmental characteristics.

Resilience Management for Conservation of Inland Recreational Fisheries

Resilience thinking has generated much interest among scientific communities, yet most resilience concepts have not materialized into management applications. We believe that using resilience concepts to characterize systems and the social and ecological processes affecting them is a way to integrate resilience into better management decisions. This situation is exemplified by inland recreational fisheries, which represent complex socioecological systems that face unpredictable and unavoidable change. Making management decisions in the context of resilience is increasingly important given mounting environmental and anthropogenic perturbations to inland systems. Herein, we propose a framework that allows resilience concepts to be better incorporated into management by (i) recognizing how current constraints and management objectives focus on desired or undesired systems (specific fish and anglers), (ii) evaluating the state of a system in terms of how both social and ecological forces enforce or erode the desired or undesired system, (iii) identifying the resilience-stage cycles a system state may undergo, and (iv) determining the broad management strategies that may be viable given the system state and resilience stage. We use examples from inland recreational fisheries to illustrate different system state and resilience stages and synthesize several key results. Across all combinations of socioecological forces, five common types of viable management strategies emerge: (i) adopt a different management preference or focus, (ii) change stakeholder attitudes or behaviors via stakeholder outreach, (iii) engage in (sometimes extreme) biological intervention, (iv) engage in fishery intervention, and (v) adopt landscape-level management approaches focusing on achieving different systems in different waters. We then discuss the challenges and weaknesses of our approach, including specifically the cases in which there are multiple strong social forces (i.e., stakeholders holding competing objectives or values) and situations where waters are not readily divisible, such as rivers or great lakes, and in which spatial separation of competing objectives will be difficult. We end with our vision of how we believe these types of operationalized resilience approaches could improve or transform inland recreational fisheries management.

Production dynamics reveal hidden overharvest of inland recreational fisheries

Recreational fisheries are valued at $190B globally and constitute the predominant way in which people use wild fish stocks in developed countries, with inland systems contributing the main fraction of recreational fisheries. Although inland recreational fisheries are thought to be highly resilient and self-regulating, the rapid pace of environmental change is increasing the vulnerability of these fisheries to overharvest and collapse. Here we directly evaluate angler harvest relative to the biomass production of individual stocks for a major inland recreational fishery. Using an extensive 28-y dataset of the walleye (Sander vitreus) fisheries in northern Wisconsin, United States, we compare empirical biomass harvest (Y) and calculated production (P) and biomass (B) for 390 lake year combinations. Production overharvest occurs when harvest exceeds production in that year. Biomass and biomass turnover (P/B) declined by ∼30 and ∼20%, respectively, over time, while biomass harvest did not change, causing overharvest to increase. Our analysis revealed that ∼40% of populations were production-overharvested, a rate >10× higher than estimates based on population thresholds often used by fisheries managers. Our study highlights the need to adapt harvest to changes in production due to environmental change.

Local Stakeholders Understand Recreational Fisheries as Social-Ecological Systems but Do Not View Governance Systems as Influential for System Dynamics

Recognition that there are often social and ecological components to problems that arise from management of shared resources has led to a dominant paradigm among academics that natural resource management should consider coupled social-ecological systems. For academic theory to have real-world impact it must be understood and acted upon by stakeholders at a local scale. However, it is unclear if stakeholders view their systems as coupled social-ecological systems. We interviewed key stakeholders in an inland recreational fishery to solicit their mental models of system dynamics in the context of Ostrom‘s Social-Ecological Systems Framework (SESF). We found that stakeholders in aggregate considered all components of the SESF (actors, resource systems, environmental settings, and governance systems) in their view of recreational fisheries. However, researchers viewed governance system and environmental setting components as less diverse than actor and resource system components, while anglers and managers viewed the actor component as more diverse than all other components. In addition, all stakeholders viewed governance system and environmental setting components as less influential than actor and resource system components. Given strong empirical evidence of positive relationships between the number and diversity of governance system attributes and successful fisheries outcomes, our results suggest that governance systems that prevent free riding, enforce rules through graduated sanctions, and address large scale problems at the local scale through nested institutions could improve social-ecological outcomes in inland recreational fisheries.

Genetic Stock Identification Reveals That Angler Harvest Is Representative of Cryptic Stock Proportions in a High‐Profile Kokanee Fishery

AbstractEstimating fishery harvest and spawning escapement (spawning stock size) are critical components of fisheries management; however, they can be particularly challenging to measure in systems where visually indistinguishable, but reproductively isolated populations mix within a single fishing area. Genetic stock identification is a common tool used in such mixed‐stock fisheries to improve estimates of spawning escapement and productivity; however, there are few references for management applications, particularly for inland recreational fisheries. The kokanee Oncorhynchus nerka population in Wood Lake, British Columbia, is a highly productive and valuable mixed‐stock fishery that includes two reproductively distinct ecotypes: shore‐ and stream‐spawning. Enumeration of shore‐spawning kokanee is logistically challenging, as the spawning population is not confined to a defined area or depth like stream‐spawners. Here, we combined in‐lake sampling (angler harvest and age‐0 trawl samples) over a 9‐year period (2008–2016) with genetic stock identification and Bayesian statistics to develop a new method for enumerating shore‐spawning kokanee. Our results suggest that angler‐harvested kokanee are representative of the spawner age structure and stock proportions. Therefore, we used the angler harvest sample combined with known stream‐spawner escapement to reconstruct the shore‐spawner escapement time series. Shore‐spawner abundance varied between 2,040 spawners and 13,460 spawners across years, which is over four times that previously predicted using the peak estimate of visual survey counts. Our results demonstrate the recovery of both the shore‐ and stream‐spawning kokanee in Wood Lake following a well‐documented crash in 2011 and suggest that a larger harvestable surplus is available for this high‐value kokanee fishery.