The numbers don’t lie, though sometimes new findings rewrite old estimates: Recreational fisheries in the 48 U.S. contiguous states contribute far more to both local economies and household food supplies than originally thought. And non-commercial anglers seem to be catching a lot more fish than previously believed, too.
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According to the journal article Inland recreational fisheries harvest far exceeds reported inland harvest in the United States, published in May, its authors have “estimated that recreational lake fisheries in the conterminous USA likely harvest 236,000–671,000 tonnes of fish per year.”
In terms of how that research compares to initial numbers, “these findings equate to a range of 17–48 times greater than total inland fisheries harvest reported to the United Nations.”
First, Some Background
The collaborative team of North American fishery scientists conducted the study, which focused on recreational fishing in landlocked waterbodies like lakes and rivers across the lower 48 states. They referred to thousands of fishing surveys spanning the country’s inland waters.
Their resulting paper’s abstract laid out the approach: “[W]e used the U.S. Inland Creel and Angler Survey Catalog and catch and effort model (CreelCatch) and several assumptions to provide an initial estimate of the magnitude of total inland recreational fisheries harvest in the conterminous USA. The CreelCatch model projected fishing harvest across lakes, ponds, and reservoirs based on fishing effort, water body area, and regional effects.”
As the paper’s abstract also noted, “[r]ecreational fisheries are important global contributors to food security, socio-cultural practices, and local and regional economies.” Policymakers, however, tend to overlook inland fisheries for reasons rooted in not fully understanding their “magnitude of participation, harvest, and economic impact.” These new findings challenge longstanding views of recreational fishing as simply a leisure hobby.
“Inland recreational fisheries may warrant greater consideration for their contribution to national scale socioeconomics and impacts on fish stocks and ecosystems,” the abstract further noted.
Breaking Down the Numbers
Matthew Robertson — Research Scientist, Fisheries and Marine Institute, Memorial University of Newfoundland, and one of the team’s researchers — also wrote a related article.
The piece cites information accounting for catch-and-release numbers rather than harvest data, noting how “people who engage in recreational fishing in the country’s lakes, ponds and reservoirs catch between 2 billion and 6 billion fish each year.”
As the research team has, over several years, collected more than 15,000 surveys from 40 participating states (and is still collecting more surveys), that range comes from three combined and significant factors. It accounts for: anglers’ numbers of fish caught and hours spent fishing across the U.S.; educated assumptions about the number of inland waters used for fishing, based on relationships between those bodies’ sizes and known fishing locations; and the proportion of fish that anglers catch and don’t throw back.
In his article, Robertson also highlighted information like how recreational anglers’ harvested fish account for roughly 20% of the country’s “total recorded annual consumption of fresh fish that has not been frozen.” He added that the research team “estimated the value of the recreational fish catch is roughly US$3 billion a year” — contrasted with the value of domestic commercial processed fishery products, which totals an estimated annual $12 billion a year.
Accounting for the Differences in Counts
Robertson explained the vast disparity between reported numbers and what the team’s research yielded. “Official harvest statistics for fisheries, which are collected by the U.N. from national governments, usually focus on ocean fisheries, which are typically the largest and most lucrative. As a result, the only official statistics for the U.S. freshwater fisheries harvest cover commercial fisheries that primarily operate in the Great Lakes.”
Furthermore, there’s a significant challenge in collecting river, lake, pond, and reservoir data that are all secured differently across various state agencies’ operations. It is also inherently “impossible to know where recreational fishers are and what they are catching across the entire country,” Robertson explained. After all, an estimated 35 million anglers are catching their fish in the country’s millions of inland waterbodies.
“Without a coordinated national effort, the total recreational catch has remained effectively invisible because one state’s questions and findings do not always align with those in other states,” Robertson’s article pointed out
How Does This Impact Recreational Anglers?
For one, the paper establishes non-commercial fishing as much more than the leisure hobby so many dismiss it as. “[F]or many households, recreationally harvested fish — fish that people catch and keep, often to eat — represent a meaningful source of protein at very low cost. By recognizing this unseen harvest as a significant food source, policymakers can recognize that changes in recreational fishing opportunities don’t just affect anglers’ enjoyment, but also millions of households’ food security,” Robertson wrote in his article.
Taking a closer look at the places where recreational fishers drop their lines also helped illuminate data that may be beneficial to fisheries managers and other decision-makers tasked with not only regulating the waters in their jurisdictions but also assessing the needs of both inland waterbodies and their respective anglers.
“Getting this first estimate provides a baseline for fisheries managers to ensure fishing policies line up with the actual effects of recreational fishing,” Robertson wrote. “Even our most conservative assumption of harvested fish — 236,000 metric tons — is much higher than the prior U.N. estimates of 13,388 metric tons. We hope these new numbers will serve as initial estimates that will be continually refined as we and other researchers collect more data and better understand where and how people fish.”
It also takes into consideration just how recreational fishing impacts an ecosystem. That information can also be useful to those who maintain the welfare and stability of the country’s countless inland waters.
“Effective fisheries management requires accurate estimates of fishing activity,” according to Robertson.” Without that information, officials may overestimate fish population size, which could lead to unexpected population collapses and new fishery regulations and closures.”
