The importance of fishing opportunity to angler utility analysis in marine recreational fisheries

Managers of recreational fisheries make assumptions about what anglers value, often emphasizing factors directly related to catch. Evaluations that include both catch and non-catch aspects of recreational fishing, as well as the trade-offs between attributes that are tripbased and those that measure opportunity over a season, are rarely be incorporated into management objectives and the design of management frameworks. A study of two marine recreational fisheries in the United States, Pacific halibut in central Oregon and red snapper in northeast Florida, comprised local interviews and a limited survey of recreational anglers to evaluate the relative importance of catch rates, season length, and the uncertainty around early closures. National meeting reports, interviews, and stated-preference survey results suggested that angling opportunity in the form of longer seasons may be more important to anglers than either catch rates or the uncertainty that results from mid-season changes to fishery closure dates. Results suggest that researchers evaluating economic benefits to anglers should consider including opportunity attributes directly in angler surveys. Issues associated with limited sample sizes and a lack of intermediate attribute values limit the use of this study for direct regulatory guidance, but it instead offers a potential methodology to be applied in future analyse.