Modelling Individual Behaviours of Fishers: Opportunities and Challenges for Integration with Coupled Social-Ecological Systems of Regionally-Based Recreational Fisheries

Recreational fisheries involve connections and feedbacks between fishers and fish. However, it is the mobility of fishers and not necessarily fish that extend fisheries to a regional spatial extent in settings dotted with inland lakes and rivers. In fact, it is well known that the fishers’ responses to changing resource and social (including managerial) conditions can undermine regional ecological and social management objectives. Given the abilities of fishers and their actions to influence social and ecological outcomes such as societal well-being and fish mortality, a need exists to better understand fishers and their actions. From the suite of available phenomenological and mechanistic models to predict fishers’ behaviours, I will focus on an individual (agent)-based model. The presentation highlights a series of interconnected decisions that the agent must make beginning with the decision to participate in recreational fishing to where, when, how often, and how to pursue fishing activities. Drawing from empirical and synthetic data, I illustrate an approach to operationalize this model and discuss its strengths and weaknesses.