Optimum Fisheries Management Policy: Angler Opportunity versus Angler Benefit

Abstract
We address a common problem faced by fishery managers wherein recreational fisheries have a mismatched distribution of fishing opportunities and anglers. Fishing opportunity is compared with angler benefit as performance standards for managing a fishery. We describe a decision rule fishery managers can use to distribute fishing opportunity optimally, and illustrate how managers in New Mexico can estimate the impact of changes in the distribution of fishing opportunity on angler benefits by use of the comprehensive planning model RIOFISH that simulates the state's major fisheries. Results indicate that fishery management plans in New Mexico typically would produce highest angler benefit by distributing resources nonuniformly over sites and kinds of opportunity.

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