Study on how pandemic affected recreational anglers

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WB Staff
Posts: 12504
Joined: Thu Jan 26, 2012 10:56 am

Study on how pandemic affected recreational anglers

Post by WB Staff »

Recreational fishing in the U.S. is largely a personal hobby that scales up to a multibillion-dollar economic activity. More than 44 million people in the U.S. identify as recreational anglers making this hobby second only to jogging in terms of popular outdoor activities.

At the beginning of the pandemic last spring as things were shutting down, fisheries science researchers at LSU, U.S. Geological Survey, and Clemson University saw the opportunity to study how the pandemic was affecting recreational anglers.

LSU launched an online survey from July to August 2020 and received nearly 18,000 responses across 10 states. The researchers asked recreational anglers 20 questions that included if they fished more or less since the pandemic, what their motivations were and if they thought fishing is safe in terms of COVID-19 exposure.

"What we found is people still fished and in fact, they fished a little bit more during the pandemic," said LSU Department of Oceanography & Coastal Sciences Assistant Professor Stephen Midway, who is the lead author of this study that is published in PLOS ONE.

Out of five anglers, four fished as much during the pandemic as they did before while one angler out of the five fished more -; taking about one additional trip in the spring. Although the increase may seem small, it has a positive ripple effect on the economy and fisheries management.

FULL STORY: https://www.news-medical.net/news/20210 ... glers.aspx
Smokie
Posts: 106
Joined: Mon Dec 28, 2020 8:12 pm
Location: State of Jefferson

Re: Study on how pandemic affected recreational anglers

Post by Smokie »

Ill make somebody laugh with this one... I went to visit some fam in the midwest right at the start of covid, and part of my vacation was spending two weeks on table rock lake... Day one I got there the army corp shut down all tournaments for the next four weeks solid, I didnt see a wrapped boat the rest of my vacation hardly saw another boat out at all... if they wanna do that next time i go out there im ok with it... covid sucks but that lil part was cool to me... day three I was there, I wasnt aware of covid yet and I saw this grandpa aged old man all gloved and masked up waiting at the same gas station as me at 5am... place opens and i thought he was doing all that for minnows since he was there for minnows, i tried to take a pic and guy starts cussin me for not being maked up talking about the virus this and the virus that... I thought the guy was nuts until I got rained out moring of day five and watched the news on tv, i was like no way does grandpa need a mask and gloves to touch a minner lol... come to find out all the tp was gone too... good thing i pack dude wipes, go swindle, he saved my ***. being a fan of the gman really helped my butt this year i can say looking back. ahh crazy covid world making all the good baits sold out... been a trip this covid mess
gabuelhaj
Posts: 507
Joined: Sat May 07, 2005 8:21 am
Location: Manteca

Re: Study on how pandemic affected recreational anglers

Post by gabuelhaj »

"For most states, a large amount of their fisheries management budget is generated by fishing license sales. That helps increase the revenues to help them do their jobs,"

Except California, which illegally directs the license fees to a fund not related to game fish, sort of like raping and pillaging..... And it's OK... :roll:

Good luck!
Glenn Abuelhaj
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