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The role of recreational fishers in conservation and management: lessons from freshwater systems for marine practitionersorganized by Elise Granek (Oregon State University), J. David Allan (University of Michigan), Elizabeth Madin (University of California, Santa Barbara) and Mark Brown (U.S. Bureau of Land Management)CANADA’S RECREATIONAL FISHERIES: THE INVISIBLE COLLAPSE? JOHN POST, Biological Sciences, University of Calgary, AB, Canada, jrpost@ucalgary.ca Most recreational fisheries in North America attempt to control harvest by regulating the behaviour of individual anglers through spatial and temporal closures, daily harvest limits and size restrictions. Empirical data suggest that harvest effort by populations of anglers is inversely related to travel time (or distance, costs), and positively related to fishing quality. Such a regulatory system should lead to self-sustaining fisheries. Yet critical review of several of Canada’s high profile recreational fisheries suggests that collapse is common, but not commonly recognized. I discuss several biological and management processes that in fact suggest that collapse should be the expectation as total fishing effort exceeds a threshold value. I conclude that effort limitation at the level of the total angler population may be the only solution to sustaining the cultural and economic value of recreational fisheries. FLY FISHING FOR BIODIVERSITY ZEB HOGAN, Jake Vander Zanden, Sudeep Chandra, David Gilroy, Brant Allen, and Erdenebat Manchin, University of Wisconsin, Madison, USA (ZH, JVZ, DG), University of Nevada, Reno, NV, USA (SC), University of California, Davis, CA (BA), Mongolian Institute of Geoecology (EM), zebhogan@hotmail.com The University of Wisconsin–Madison, the University of Nevada–Reno, and the University of California–Davis, and the Mongolian Institute of Geoecology have partnered as a research team in a conservation effort to sustainably protect Mongolia’s giant salmon, Hucho taimen, through operation of fishing concessions. The project is designed to assist local communities, government institutions and bodies, and tourist companies to collaboratively establish a natural resource management regime for the Eg-Uur Watershed Area (EUWA) in the northwestern region of Mongolia. The underlying rationale of the project is to treat wildlife as a locally managed concessionable natural resource, thereby enabling the local communities to maximize the economic returns from its use. The financial sustainability and biodiversity conservation vehicle for the project is high-end, low impact catch and release flyfishing ecotourism. The research team is evaluating the sustainability and effectiveness of this innovative resource management approach and assessing how, and under what conditions this approach can serve as a model for resource development projects elsewhere. FOSTERING AN OCEAN ETHIC AMONG THE FRESHWATER ANGLING PUBLIC JACK WILLIAMS, Trout Unlimited, Medford, OR, USA, jwilliams@tu.org In freshwater environments, recreational anglers often are among the first to argue for restrictive fishery harvests and increased habitat protection. For example, the coldwater fish conservation group Trout Unlimited has argued for increased designation of wilderness areas and protection of remaining roadless areas. Such organizations promote the values of resource protection to fisheries sustainability and as a hedge to future environmental uncertainty. Conservation of marine habitats seldom has been afforded the attention or protection that freshwater and terrestrial habitats have received. This inattention to marine conservation issues has been caused primarily by a one-two punch of our lack of appreciation of linkages between freshwater and marine habitats, and the seeming vastness and hidden nature of oceanic resources. The offshore angling public may seem poorly organized, but I argue that freshwater angling and conservation groups have much at stake in marine resource protection despite their inattention to oceanic environments. Most anglers either periodically fish in oceans or estuaries or fish in freshwater for species that are dependent in part on a saltwater life history phase. Anglers and the broader public also are drawn to the natural beauty of estuaries and oceans and the life they support. Building linkages between ocean conservation and freshwater angling groups is a necessary step that would serve the interests of both parties. BRINGING TOGETHER FRESHWATER AND MARINE ANGLING INTERESTS IN CONSERVATION: CANADA’S SPORT FISHING ADVISORY BOARD GERRY KRISTIANSON, Sport Fishing Institute of British Columbia, Sidney, BC, Canada, gerrykr@telus.net The history of Canada’s Sport Fishing Advisory Board suggests it is possible to engage angler representatives in conservation and management issues affecting fish in both freshwater and marine habitats. The SFAB was formed when recreational anglers banded together to demand an end to commercial net fishing of salmon where this activity not only reduced angler opportunity but also involved an unacceptable bycatch mortality of chinook and coho in fisheries aimed at sockeye. It is based on local and regional committees and a coast-wide main board, providing the opportunity to bridge the sometimes competing interests of freshwater and marine anglers. The board’s interest in conservation has not been limited to salmon. Indeed, it was calling for the establishment of refugia to protect sedentary species such as rockfish long before this became a sexy topic for others. Of course, anglers inevitably are faced with reconciling their determination to conserve a scarce species with their desire to continue harvesting more abundant fish. Having championed the establishment of refugia, and having accepted that Rockfish Conservation Areas will be “no fishing” zones for the foreseeable future, members of the SFAB are faced with the challenge of helping government managers and scientists design RCA boundaries that provide adequate protection for rockfish and their habitat but do not foreclose access to fishing “hot spots” for more abundant salmon, halibut, and lingcod. REELING IN CONSERVATION: MANAGING THE RED SNAPPER FISHERY IN THE SOUTHEASTERN UNITED STATES FELICIA COLEMAN and Will Figueira, Department of Biological Science, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, USA (FC), Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Technology Sydney, NSW, Australia (WF), coleman@bio.fsu.edu Red snapper is distinguished by being the single most important economic species in the Gulf of Mexico. It also is distinguished by having the most torturous management history, the longest record of overfishing, and the most contentious policy of any other species in the Gulf. In addition, like a number of other economically important Gulf species, red snapper are taken primarily by recreational fishers. The most significant block to developing stronger conservation measures for red snapper appears to be reluctance on the part of managers (supported by considerable political pressure) to limit marine recreational fishing. Indeed, the thrust in management has been to increase rather than decrease fishing opportunities for this sector. In this study, we evaluate the management trajectory of red snapper and, drawing on the greater range of management measures used in other aquatic systems, suggest that red snapper rebuilding could profit from marine resource managers expanding their management repertoire. RECREATIONAL FISHERS AND THE CHANNEL ISLANDS NATIONAL MARINE SANCTUARY MARINE PROTECTED AREAS: CONSERVATION TOOL OR USERGROUP CONFLICT? MERIT MCCREA, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA, USA, mccrea@lifesci.ucsb.edu In 1997 the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary (CINMS) initiated a push to support the formation of a network of Marin Protected Areas (MPAs). Southern California recreational fishers view the trade-off between loss of access and the costly conservation value of large MPAs as unlikely to provide a net benefit to them. For recreational fishers, management options that preserve access while providing needed conservation value are much preferred. Conservation benefits of MPAs are seen as lacking a clear conservation challenge that cannot equally be addressed in ways other than the permanent elimination of access to fish within large areas of habitat. Fishers see the “MPA as conservation” alternative at its worst as poorly managed, depoperate fishable areas interspersed by MPAs that provide a primary yet meager source of new recruitment. At best they see simply losing access to fish favored productive sites. Fishers suspect the development of Prohibition-esque poaching of permanent MPAs as a result of the uncertain, ephemeral nature of funding for enforcement. Fishers consider that large MPAs meet preservation challenges far better than they do conservation challenges, therefore MPA conflicts are best described as a user group conflict than a conservation issue. RECREATIONAL FISHERS’ DATA AND INVOLVEMENT—ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS IN INCREASING BIODIVERSITY PROTECTION WITHIN THE GREAT BARRIER REEF MARINE PARK DARREN CAMERON, Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, Townsville, QLD, Australia, camerond@gbrmpa.gov.au The new Zoning Plan for the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park (GBRMP) that commenced in July 2004 aimed to protect biodiversity at an ecosystem level. The introduction of the new Zoning Plan increased no-fishing areas in the GBRMP from 4.5% to 33.5%. The involvement and cooperation of recreational fishers was essential during the rezoning process. Over 42% of persons completing 31,570 submissions related to the rezoning identified themselves as being part of the recreational fishing sector. The rezoning process involved identification of candidate no-fishing areas using computer-assisted decision tools incorporating a range of data, including recreational fisheries data, as well as manual incorporation of data acquired during community consultations. Recreational fisheries data used included fishing location information obtained from recreational fishing diary surveys, coordinates of recreational fishing locations and fish tag and recapture data. After release of the draft Zoning Plan detailing the candidate no-fishing areas, further community consultation and a review of submissions (including those from recreational fishers), a revised Zoning Plan was prepared and adopted by the Australian Government. While recreational fishers do not all support the rezoning, recreational fishers play an invaluable role in the maintenance and monitoring of the enhanced conservation network in the GBRMP. | |||||||||||||||||
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