The influences of gender on fishing participation in New York's eastern Lake Ontario Counties

Abstract

Recreational fishing generates millions of dollars in visitor expenditures every year in New York's Great Lakes Region. While projected total participation in recreational fishing statewide is anticipated to increase between 1996 and 2005, the number of anglers in the 18- to 44-year-old age class is expected to decrease by an estimated 7.9% or 32,049 anglers. In order to identify factors that influence fishing participation in the 18- to 44- year-old age class, NY Sea Grant and the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry conducted a mail survey of 1050 anglers (525 males and 525 females) in three eastern Lake Ontario Counties in 2001. Of the qualified sample of 957 anglers, 279 anglers (136 males and 143 females) returned surveys for a response rate of 29.2%. Anglers were asked to identify their level of fishing participation during their childhood, adolescence, and adult years, and to quantify their level of agreement/disagreement with statements concerning social and psychological factors that may have influenced their fishing participation. Descriptive statistics are used to identify significant differences in responses between genders. Results indicate that fishing participation by males and females is reliant on the social linkages related to fishing developed by anglers as well as the development of intrinsic values for fishing.

Parent Publication

• Proceedings of the 2002 Northeastern Recreation Research Symposium

Citation

Kuehn, Diane. 2003. The influences of gender on fishing participation in New York''s eastern Lake Ontario Counties. In: Schuster, Rudy, comp., ed. Proceedings of the 2002 Northeastern Recreation Research Symposium. Gen. Tech. Rep. NE-302. Newtown Square, PA: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Northeastern Research Station. 271-277