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Pike stock management in designated brown trout fisheries: Anglers’ preferences. ESRI Research Bulletin, 2018/06

Curtis, John (2018) Pike stock management in designated brown trout fisheries: Anglers’ preferences. ESRI Research Bulletin, 2018/06. UNSPECIFIED.

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    Abstract

    A policy review with respect to the active management of pike stocks within lakes that are designated as wild brown trout fisheries is currently underway. This paper examines trout and pike anglers’ preferences for pike stock management. Pike stocks are controlled with the objective of protecting brown trout stocks, and a naive assumption is that trout anglers support and pike anglers oppose this management intervention. This research reveals that this is not the case and that angler preferences for pike stock control are complex and nuanced. A majority of surveyed trout anglers, at 61%, revealed preferences opposing pike stock control, and all else equal, are more likely to choose fishing sites where pike stocks are not actively managed. The converse is that a substantial minority, 39%, of trout anglers are advocates of pike control, with about one-third of these being more extreme in their preferences. Not surprisingly, surveyed pike anglers do not support pike stock control measures, though the strength of their preferences varies across pike anglers. The research found that neither easily identifiable socio-demographic characteristics such as age and education, nor angler-type attributes such as fishing club membership and angler skill levels are associated with anglers’ support or opposition to pike stock control. Consequently, we surmise that preferences on pike stock control are related to anglers’ philosophical, ecological or political beliefs related to fishing or fishery management. Some other significant results from the analysis relate to catch rates and bag limits. Pike anglers are more responsive to catch rates than trout anglers. Pike anglers are 1.6 times more likely to visit a fishing site where the average catch rate is 1 fish higher compared to 1.1 times for trout anglers. At present there is a bag limit of 4 trout per day and the majority of trout anglers are not averse to a reduction in the daily bag limit. Only 1-in-8 trout anglers are opposed to reducing the daily bag limit.

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    Item Type: Other
    Subjects for non-EU documents: EU policies and themes > Policies & related activities > agriculture policy
    EU policies and themes > Policies & related activities > sports
    Countries > Ireland
    Subjects for EU documents: UNSPECIFIED
    EU Series and Periodicals: UNSPECIFIED
    EU Annual Reports: UNSPECIFIED
    Series: Series > Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI), Dublin > ESRI Research Bulletin
    Depositing User: Phil Wilkin
    Official EU Document: No
    Language: English
    Date Deposited: 13 Dec 2019 22:15
    Number of Pages: 4
    Last Modified: 05 Feb 2020 03:03
    URI: http://aei.pitt.edu/id/eprint/101910

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