Landscape-scale social and ecological outcomes of dynamic angler and fish behaviours: processes, data, and patterns

Abstract

The first relatively complete landscape-scale social–ecological system (SES) model of a recreational fishery was developed and ground-truthed with independent angling effort data. Based on the British Columbia multistock recreational fishery for rainbow trout (Oncorynchus mykiss), the model includes hundreds of individual lake fisheries, hundreds of thousands of anglers, originating from tens of communities, connected by complex road and trail networks, all distributed over a landscape of approximately half a million square kilometres. The approach is unique in that it incorporates realistic and empirically derived behavioural interactions within and among the three key components of the SES: angler communities, fish populations, and management policies. Current management policies were characterized and alternate policies assessed by simulation. We examined spatial patterns in ecological and social properties of the SES and used simulations to investigate the impacts of alternate management policies on these patterns. Simulation outcomes strongly depended on the spatial redistribution of anglers across the landscape, existing road networks, heterogeneity in angler behaviours, and the spatial pattern of fish population productivity.