Peri-urban shore recreational fishing in New England and climate change

ABSTRACT

The mental and physical benefits of accessible coastlines for urban residents will be impacted by climate change. Using place attachment, identity, adaptation, climate, and recreational fishing literature, this study investigates how urban and peri-urban shore recreational fishers will likely respond to impacts from climate change, specifically, those associated with rainfall, hurricanes and fish species. Findings from anglers interviewed at peri-urban public access sites in Rhode Island indicate that increased rainfall and hurricanes are perceived to reduce recreational fishing use through lack of access, dangerous conditions and erosion. Climate change impacts were conceptualised as short or long term with many anglers highly adaptive to short term impacts. Anglers with health issues or children were less motivated to use substitution gear or strategies for weather changes. Increased immediate fish abundance may increase shore recreational fishing. These findings allow assessment and interpretation of how recreational fishers will use coastal sites in the future.

KEYWORDS:

• Climate change
• recreational
• fishing
• coastal
• urban

Acknowledgments

We thank our Undergraduate Research Assistants and SURF Fellows Ana Nimaja, Marcos Figueroa, and Sabrina Alvarez Ogando for their effort, ideas, feedback and work on the project. We thank Dr. Kate Mulvaney, Dr. M. Conor McManus, and Dr. David Bidwell for their thoughts. We also thank the anonymous reviewers and the Editor for their assistance.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Ethics statement

This study was carried out in accordance with the recommendations of Institutional Review Board. The protocol was approved by the Institutional Review Board, University of Rhode Island Office of Research Integrity, Division of Research, and Development. All subjects gave written informed consent in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki.

Additional information

Funding

Funding for this project came from Rhode Island Sea Grant, National Sea Grant College Program, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), U.S. Department of Commerce, and from RI NSF EPSCoR Rhode Island Consortium for Coastal Ecology Assessment, Innovation and Modeling (RI C-AIM) Student Undergraduate Research Fellowship Project. The statements, findings, conclusions, and recommendations are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of Rhode Island NSF EPSCoR, NOAA, the Sea Grant College Program, or the U.S. Department of Commerce.