An LSU survey found people took a lot more fishing trips in the spring of 2020 compared to spring of 2019, seemingly due to pandemic era isolation policies.
LSU Oceanography and Coastal Sciences Professor Stephen Midway said traditionally fishing has primarily been used a social bonding experience, but their poll found the reasons anglers gave for heading started to change a bit.
“We tended to see a little more movement in the direction of fishing motivations being motivated by stress relief or a connection to nature, things you might expect to see in a pandemic,” said Midway.
The poll found four out of five anglers took as many trips as they had the year before, and one out of five took at least one extra trip. An estimated 44 million Americans consider themselves anglers.
“Small differences when played out across populations of millions and millions of anglers can still result in millions of additional fishing trips that we estimate took place in the spring of 2020,” said Midway
Midway said the increased number of fishing trips, assuming that people are following regulations, should not be an ecological stressor. In fact, it may be the opposite.
“By and large it is a very good thing when more people fish and more people buy licenses because in many places the sale of those licenses, the revenue generated from license sales, feeds back directly or indirectly to fisheries management,” said Midway.
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