Can Management Reduce Harvest Inequality in Recreational Fisheries?

Abstract

Harvest inequality, a situation in which most of the fish are harvested by a disproportionately small number of anglers, is a characteristic of most recreational fisheries. Harvest inequality develops when a few anglers harvest a very large number of fish or when many anglers harvest few fish. Identifying the cause of harvest inequality is critical to understanding the potential for management to reduce the inequality. Management efforts aimed at reducing the top anglers’ take will have only a modest impact if the harvest inequality is actually caused by many anglers harvesting no fish. We measured harvest inequality in 20 years of creel census data from a trout stream in southeastern New York. We calculated Lorenz curve asymmetry coefficients (S) to test whether harvest inequality was attributable to small harvests by many anglers or large harvests by a few anglers. Harvest inequality in the fishery was consistently high and the S-value was always less than 1.0, indicating that harvest inequality was caused by many anglers harvesting no fish rather than by few anglers harvesting many fish. This influence becomes stronger with increased harvest. We conclude that management is unlikely to influence the magnitudes of harvest inequality in recreational fisheries because regulations do not target the principal cause of harvest inequality.

Received May 10, 2012; accepted October 29, 2012

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This study was supported by the National Science Foundation's Graduate Research Fellowship Program, the University of Virginia, the University of Wisconsin–Madison, and the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies. We thank Jim Kitchell for helpful comments on an earlier version of this manuscript.