Willingness-to-pay of anglers for catch-and-release: results from a choice experiment in Britanny

Résumé 0

In 2017, a survey of salmon anglers was conducted in three départements in West Brittany to ascertain their willingness to pay for different fishing management parameters: season, total allowable catch (TAC), fishing method, catch and release, and level of river use. The anglers were asked to choose between hypothetical fishing destinations, differing in terms of their combination of management parameters and travel distance. On average, we observe that catch and release has a depressive effect on the valuation of a day’s fishing, at €25 per day if removal is allowed and €15 per day if catch and release is compulsory. However, some socioeconomic groups (the most qualified) positively value catch and release. All in all, it is of note that the majority of the anglers nonetheless hold a positive valuation of a catch-and-release fishing day, which could therefore be used to generate economic returns for the river after the close of the TAC. Lastly, the fishing season, and especially the level of river use, impact more on the value of fishing than catch and release.