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USGS2025

Best practices for understanding recreational fishers

In this closing chapter of our edited book, we summarize what we believe are best practices for understanding recreational fishers. Fishers are an integral part of the recreational fishery social-ecological system, and we emphasize the importance of placing them in that context. We begin with an overview of the process of developing a project and conclude with some broad suggestions for standardising approaches to gather data from and about fishers, mainly focusing on social science methods. Throughout, we emphasize tactics to promote the development of inter- and transdisciplinary tools and processes, as a means of more fully understanding the full social-ecological system. This chapter draws from methodological details and suggestions developed throughout this book; we describe how they work together but point the reader to these specific chapters to further understand how to build interdisciplinarity into research and management.

Book chapter↗

USGS2021

Creel surveys for social-ecological systems focused fisheries management

Recreational fisheries are social-ecological systems (SES), and knowledge of human dimensions coupled with ecology are critically needed to understand their system dynamics. Creel surveys, which typically occur in-person and on-site, serve as an important tool for informing fisheries management. Recreational fisheries creel data have the potential to inform large-scale understanding of social and ecological dynamics, but applications are currently limited by a disconnect between the questions posed by social-ecological researchers and the methods in which surveys are conducted. Although innovative use of existing data can increase understanding of recreational fisheries as SES, creel surveys should also adapt to changing information needs. These opportunities include using the specific temporal and spatial scope of creel survey data, integrating these data with alternative data sources, and increasing human dimensions understanding. This review provides recommendations for adapting survey design, implementation, and analysis for SES-focused fisheries management. These recommendations are: (1) increasing human dimensions knowledge; (2) standardization of surveys and data; (3) increasing tools and training available to fisheries scientists; and (4) increasing accessibility and availability of data. Incorporation of human dimensions information into creel surveys will increase the ability of fisheries management to regulate these important systems from an integrated SES standpoint.

Reviews in Fisheries Science & Aquaculture↗