Abstract
Recreational fisheries have high economic worth, valued at US$190 billion globally. An important, but underappreciated, secondary value of recreational catch is its role as a source of food. This contribution is poorly understood due to difficulty in estimating recreational harvest at spatial scales beyond a single system, as traditionally estimated from individual creel surveys. Here, we address this gap using 28-year creel surveys of ~300 Wisconsin inland lakes. We develop a statistical model of recreational harvest for individual lakes and then scale-up to unsurveyed lakes (3,769 lakes; 73% of statewide lake surface area). We generate a statewide estimate of recreational lake harvest of ~4,200 metric tons and an estimated annual angler consumption rate of ~1.1 kg, nearly equal to the total estimated United States per capita freshwater fish consumption. An important ecosystem service, recreational harvest makes significant contributions to human diets and plays an often-unheralded role in food security.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 647-655 |
| Number of pages | 9 |
| Journal | Fisheries |
| Volume | 45 |
| Issue number | 12 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Dec 2020 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:We thank numerous Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources staff for the collection and contribution of the data used in this study. Thanks to Steve Carpenter and other reviewers for providing highly valuable feedback. Many others, including Thomas Cichosz, Hilary Dugan, Zachary Feiner, Joseph Hennessy, Alex Latzka, Eric Pedersen, Andrew Rypel, Greg Sass, and Emily Stanley provided input throughout this project. This work was supported by the U.S. Geological Survey National Climate Adaptation Science Center (U.S. Geological Survey to University of Wisconsin system G16AC00222) as well as the North Temperate Lakes Long Term Ecological Research program (NSF DEB‐1440297). Any use of trade, firm, or product names is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Government. There is no conflict of interest declared in this article.
Funding Information:
We thank numerous Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources staff for the collection and contribution of the data used in this study. Thanks to Steve Carpenter and other reviewers for providing highly valuable feedback. Many others, including Thomas Cichosz, Hilary Dugan, Zachary Feiner, Joseph Hennessy, Alex Latzka, Eric Pedersen, Andrew Rypel, Greg Sass, and Emily Stanley provided input throughout this project. This work was supported by the U.S. Geological Survey National Climate Adaptation Science Center (U.S. Geological Survey to University of Wisconsin system G16AC00222) as well as the North Temperate Lakes Long Term Ecological Research program (NSF DEB-1440297). Any use of trade, firm, or product names is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Government. There is no conflict of interest declared in this article.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 American Fisheries Society
ASJC Scopus Subject Areas
- Aquatic Science
- Nature and Landscape Conservation
