Response of Anglers to Less-Restrictive Harvest Controls in a Recreational Atlantic Salmon Fishery

Abstract In any fishery, it is important to know whether management decisions have an impact on catch and effort. This study demonstrates that bag limits can be an effective management tool for reducing effort when dealing with a retention-oriented angling population. Since 1997, four different management regimes (MRs) have been applied to a recreational Atlantic Salmon Salmo salar fishery on Harry's River in Newfoundland, Canada. The four MRs include catch and release only (MR1); catch and release at the start of the season, with allowed retention after an in-season review of stock status (MR2); retention angling for the whole season, with a fixed bag limit of two salmon (MR3); and retention angling for the whole season, with an increase in bag limit from two to four salmon after an in-season review (MR4). A time series MA(1) model (moving average of order 1) was used to study the effect of MR on effort, with salmon abundance (measured as adult returns to the river) included as a confounding variable. Significantly less effort was reported by anglers fishing Harry's River under an MR1 fishery compared with any other management scenario. However, MR1 produced the greatest average CPUE, suggesting that a catch-and-release fishery attracted a more skilled or differently motivated angler. Catch and effort were linearly correlated, with an expected increase in total catch of 0.6 Atlantic Salmon for every extra day of effort. The greatest difference in effort occurred between MR1 and MR3, suggesting that a compromise between catch and release only and a bag limit of four salmon would likely satisfy challenge-seeking as well as harvest-oriented anglers.