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Recreational fishing in relation to regional ecological and social values
Recreational fishing provides an opportunity for people to interact with nature. Some studies have found that recreational fishing is the most popular outdoor activity among adults, with over 1,664,000 anglers fishing on the Great Lakes in 2011. Thirty-eight percent of those anglers chose to fish in Lake Erie during 2011—this is 10 percent more than the number of anglers who visited Lake Michigan, making Lake Erie the most popular fishing destination in the Great Lakes Basin. Fishing provides participants with light to moderate exercise, access to nature, and an important food source. Fishing within the Western Lake Erie Basin (WLEB) is also an important source of income and revenue, with the expenditures for a typical day trip on Lake Erie totaling between US$42-98 per angler. Between 2006 and 2011, the number of anglers fishing in the Great Lakes region increased by 17 percent and contributed US$1.9 billion to the Great Lakes’ economy, illustrating the increasing importance of fishing to the local economy. Recreational and sport fishing also provides ecological benefit to the region in the form of tax revenues generated from the sale of fishing licenses, a portion of which is dedicated to habitat preservation and restoration. Numerous sport fishing tournaments take place within the WLEB on an annual basis, giving fisherman from around North America the chance to compete on some of the most abundant fishing grounds in the Great Lakes. Walleye are so highly valued by the sport fishing industry in the United States that commercial fishing interests are not permitted to catch walleye on the American side of the border. This layer was used to ensure that this highly valued activity was included in the analysis.
Recreational fishing data layer
The recreational and sportfishing layer represents the fishing value of WLEB waters in terms of angler-hours, which vary slightly between the Ontario, Ohio, and Michigan areas of the WLEB. The WLECCV Project team compiled this layer from data provided by the Michigan and Ohio Departments of Natural Resources, the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, the Great Lakes Environmental Assessment and Mapping (GLEAM) project, and several published creel surveys. The assessment unit size for the U.S. and Canadian sides of the lake, and for the rivers, varied substantially; for example, the U.S. side of the lake is divided into 5-minute grid cells, while the Canadian side is divided into several uneven assessment units. All areas of the WLEB, including the Detroit, Maumee, and Sandusky Rivers, were converted into hectares to create a uniform data layer for the analysis. Similarly, angler-effort data for a mix of walleye, yellow perch, white bass, and smallmouth bass were received from several sources with variety of units that were subsequently converted into angler-hour units for the analysis.