Economic models of recreational fishing for guiding allocation policy and managing stocks: an application to the recreational fishery of south Western Australia

[Truncated] Recreational fishing is one of the most popular forms of outdoor recreation in Australia, involving approximately a third of the population. Other developed countries have recorded a similar proportion of participants. A s such, the recreational sector is a significant user of fish stocks and coastal areas. With the growing size of this sector, a number of management issues have begun to emerge. There is the potential for stocks of heavily targeted species to be over-fished and popular sites to become degraded by excessive use. In order to design effective policies for preventing these problems, more information is needed about the preferences and motives of recreational anglers.
Perhaps the most perplexing problem is resource allocation. Allocating resources fairly and efficiently between recreational interests, commercial fishermen, and other users has become a major issue in fisheries management. Because there is no market to signal the values of recreational fishing, there is a tendency for fish and access to beaches for recreation to be under-supplied. Managers are aware that recreational fishing provides substantial social and economic benefits, but do not have a good grasp of their magnitude or sensitivity to changing conditions.