Catch and Release: The Effectiveness of an Educational Class on Anglers Caught with Fishing Citations

Formal regulatory schemes, such as government imposed size limits or bag limits, are the standard for achieving fisheries management in most developed countries.  Regulations are only effective however if they are enforced, clearly understood, and supported by the angling community.  In order to enhance compliance with the fishing regulations and improve the management of their fisheries resources, Biscayne and Everglades National Parks established a fishing education class program open to the community and available to anglers cited with a fishing violation in exchange for a reduced or waived fine.  This study describes this program and quantitatively evaluates its effectiveness by measuring and comparing the self-efficacy and attitudes of participants before and after the class using generalized linear modeling.  Results show that the fishing education class is effective at improving the self-efficacy of anglers toward understanding and applying the regulations, and improves the attitudes of the participants toward fishing regulations.