Determinants of management preferences of recreational anglers in Germany: habitat management versus fish stocking

In Europe research and policy debates point to the need to increase efforts to rehabilitate or restore habitat structure and function at the expense of the traditional recreational fisheries management approach to intensively stock fish. Against this background it is paramount to understand and explain the management preferences of anglers. No research has empirically examined key factors explaining whether anglers prefer various forms of habitat management (HM) over stocking. By means of a telephone survey, we investigated the management preferences of a nationwide random sample of anglers in Germany to fund either HM or fish stocking. Management strategies potentially restricting the own activity were, on average, opposed. Anglers with high pro-ecological and low traditional management beliefs, negative stocking and positive HM attitudes, satisfied with the previous angling year, less catch orientated, successful (catch) and committed, fishing most frequently in natural water bodies, and living in more rural areas exhibited the preference to fund HM as opposed to stocking. Basic human characteristics such as beliefs, attitudes and the angler’s consumptive orientation were more meaningful predictor variables than typical angler variables such as demographics, angler experience or angler preferences (e.g. species preference). Angler catch and satisfaction emerged as the only near-term managerially manipulable variables that could be addressed to increase support for HM. Traditional management approaches without effort limitation will probably fail to initiate this shift. Anglers should be increasingly involved personally in designing and implementing management programs to facilitate their ‘‘education’’ about the outcomes and risks of various management actions.