Angler Response to Success in the California Salmon Sportfishery: Evidence and Management Implications

Abstract

This paper examines effort responsiveness to success in the California salmon partyboat sport fishery. The management process in this important fishery involves setting target harvest levels for both commercial and sportfishing groups and then using closed seasons, restricted gear, and possession limits to dampen effective effort. An important component of the management process involves forecasting sportfishing effort and its effect on catch in order to advance-plan management actions. For want of better information, simple proportionality rules-of-thumb are used currently and this paper examines the plausibility of these. Some simple models forecasting aggregate angler participation and aggregate partyboat catch on a weekly basis are estimated across several different ports. Our findings suggest that anglers are responsive to recent success in several sports (elasticities up to + .5) and that angler participation affects catch with an elasticity exceeding unity. These results indicate that the simple rules of thumb currently in use could be in substantial error.Environmental Economics and Policy, Research Methods/ Statistical Methods, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,