Reprinted from a Febr 4, 2007 column in the Morgantown Dominion Post
Fishing is big business and one of our most popular forms of outdoor recreation. In fact anglers spend $36 billion in fishing-related expenses in this country every year. In every state the fish management agency relies heavily on the sale of fishing licenses to pay the bills.
In the 1980's women were the fastest growing component of anglers, but this dropped in the 1990's. What state sells the most fishing licenses per capita? Minnesota and since fishing is so important there and since lots of women fish, that state decided to conduct a study comparing the motivations and ethics of women anglers to men. The results are interesting.
Men fish more days a year than women. Fishing was a more important part of a man’s life than a woman’s life, and a man’s friendships focused more on fishing than a women’s friendships. What motivates men and women to fish? Interestingly the study showed that catching fish for food was more important for women than it was for men. However, it was more important for men to catch trophy fish than it was for women.
Here is an interesting question. Are women more ethical anglers than men? Four factors were examined; following regulations (don’t exceed daily limits, turn in poachers, don’t waste fish, etc.), catch-and-release fishing (release all fish caught, keep only enough for a meal, etc), sharing (share good spots with other anglers, do not use new technology such as electronic equipment to improve success), and not wasting fish.
Men supported catch-and-release factors more than women. Perhaps this is simply a result from less fishing knowledge and less fishing experience. Or perhaps the fact that women are more interested in catching fish for food may be the reason they favor catch-and-release less than men. Other than that, they agreed on the four factors and so it appears that when it comes to ethics, men and women are on equal terms.
From other parts of the study they learned that women were more catch oriented than men. For example, women tended to keep all the legal fish they caught, moreso than men. Women kept the limit more than men. Women tended to keep larger fish while more men released larger fish. And men tended to specialize their fishing more than women. I believe this means that men tend to get into certain types of fishing, such as fly fishing or bass fishing, more than women.
Even though research shows that women have less time for leisure activities, more and more are getting involved in the outdoors. As more women fish, there is a need to understand their motives. For example, if they keep more fish, as this study showed, then as women who fish increase in numbers, fish agencies need to modify catch rates. Even more important is education. Some of the motives for fishing differ from men and thus educational efforts need to be refined, to reach men and women. An example here is catch-and-release. With education more women might practice and understand the need for catch-and-release in certain situations.
It appears that indeed there are some differences in motivations for men and women anglers. However, there were quite a few similarities, but twp things were apparent. More women are enjoying fishing, and both sexes can catch fish.
