Agency Adaptation Strategies and Inland Recreational Fishers Response to Climate Change

We used an expert panel of managers, researchers, and academics to determine the current status of how inland recreational fishers and management agencies may respond to a changing climate in North America.  Climate change may influence inland recreational fishers through 1) impacting habitat and fish populations that in turn impact fishers, 2) influencing environmental conditions that directly affect fishers (e.g., increased air temperatures in northern climates resulting in extended fishing seasons and increased fishing effort) and 3) mitigation and adaptation efforts (e.g., refined energy policies result in higher fuel costs making more distant trips more expensive).  In addition, management agencies need to manage for resilient ecological systems (e.g., increased fish diversity, multiple age classes within a population, develop riparian buffers to shade water from increased temperatures), and also develop resilience management systems that can implement monitoring programs and management actions efficiently to adapt to a changing climate.  However, more research is needed on how multiple pathways simultaneously influence recreational fishers, and how agencies can respond to these changes and changes within the aquatic ecosystem.  Partnerships may also be key to implement management actions at the scale relevant to climate change impacts.