Re-Conceptualizing the Study of Recreational Fishing Motivations

The recreation experience preferences (REP) scales developed by Driver and associates contain 21 psychological domains encompassing most reasons individuals participate in outdoor recreational activities.  Referred to as "activity-general" recreation motivations, measurement scales associated with them have been refined over time through numerous studies to confirm their reliability and validity.  Not until researchers began using these scales in angler surveys did questions arise about the relevancy of activity-general motivations to understanding angler behavior.  With the exception of consuming fish, many of the activity-specific motivation items developed to appease fisheries administrators appear to be just context specific motivations to an existing activity-general motivation.  For example, an individual who participates in recreational fishing "to catch a trophy fish" in reality is seeking a broader activity-general achievement-related motivation that reinforces their self-image, tests their ability, generates excitement, or increases their social recognition among their peers; fishing is just the outdoor recreation activity they prefer to achieve that general motivation. If that is indeed the case for most other activity-specific items, the question arises as to whether any motivations specific to fishing exist aside from the opportunity to keep fish (unique to fishing)? If they do exist, researchers need to make a concerted effort to define potential activity-specific domains, develop scale items, and test them with the same rigor that went into the development of the activity-general motivations.  If they cannot be developed, then researchers are delaying our understanding of angler behavior and preventing the incorporation of human dimensions research into decision-making and recruiting new anglers, and reverting to the use of the original REP scales will likely best serve that purpose .