Midwest Fish & Wildlife Conference 2016

AUTHORS: Jody Simoes, Michigan Department of Natural Resources; Frank Lupi, Michigan State University

ABSTRACT: Managers, researchers and stakeholders tasked with developing and implementing management plans are often faced with conflicts among management objectives, particularly in support of large diverse systems such as the Great Lakes. Policy decisions and management strategies are further complicated by a lack of Great Lakes angler preference information. Our objective was to inform the development of fisheries management plans in four Great Lakes (Erie, Huron, Michigan and Superior) and Lake St. Clair, using a stated-preference choice model to examine preferred management outcomes of licensed anglers. The model was estimated with survey data from a random sample of anglers (N=1,036, Response rate=36%). We use the model to estimate relative preferences, willingness to make tradeoffs between attributes, and to illustrate likely angler support for Great Lakes management strategies differentiated by emphasis on Pacific salmon, prey base, and risk of ecosystem collapse. Results showed anglers generally expressed stronger preferences for management outcomes related to ecosystem health attributes and recreational opportunity attributes. To facilitate managerial applications of the trade-offs that were quantified, anglers’ willingness to trade-off average fish size for abundance was computed for all key sportfish in each lake. Finally, the model was used to calculate choice probabilities for three hypothetical Great Lakes management strategies that differed in their emphasis on Pacific salmon, prey base, risks of ecosystem collapse and average fish size. In general, choice probabilities for the average angler, which can be interpreted as the average support for management outcomes, were greater for management outcomes favoring a native species emphasis.