STATEWIDE — Doomsday reporting could have you believe the respective futures of recreational boating and sportfishing activities are either uncertain or in dire straits. A recreational fishing advocacy group in California, for example, released a report several months back, claiming the state’s angling participation is in a “death spiral.” Other...
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2 Responses
While I wish the R3 and other gorups success, it’s not as simple as promoting boating and fishing. You have to look at all the contributing factors in a perceived decline. The reduction in boat registrations in recent years started during the recession and has only recently begun to level off, aided somewhat by stable fuel prices in the last few years and some rain!. During that time many boat manufacturers went out of business. Several years of drought at the same time combined with the increase in paddlecraft sales and popularity aren’t captured in the data as easily because paddlecraft aren’t registered. Are more people choosing to fish from paddecraft than they might have from power boats before the recession? You also have to look at gasoline prices which affect motorized boaters heavily. And generational habits change. The boating and fishing recreation of today doesn’t look like it did in the 1950s. Before the R3 group starts “approving recommendations” they need to do some detailed analysis of our changing demographics and the ecoonomic and weather influences that we might not be able to control.