GLIN==> Press Release: Lake Ontario Sportfishing Trends Outlook may prompt action to offset decline

PRESS RELEASE:  September 24, 2009
Contact:           
Dave White, NY Sea Grant, Oswego, NY, 315-312-3042
Nancy Connelly, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, 607-255-2830
 
Lake Ontario Outlook May Prompt Action to Offset Decline
 
Ithaca, NY -- Lake Ontario is New York¹s largest sport fishery, in terms of
both angler days and expenditures. At the peak of the lake¹s fisheries¹
growth, at least $100 million in angler expenditures accrued to communities
on or near Lake Ontario, say researchers Tommy L. Brown and Nancy A.
Connelly of Cornell University¹s Department of Natural Resources. Their new
report ³Lake Ontario Sportfishing: Trends, Analysis, and Outlook,² published
in partnership with New York Sea Grant, offers science-based predictions for
the Great Lake¹s future.
 
³Our goal was to develop a better sense of the factors associated with
changing trends in fishing effort on Lake Ontario and to use that
information to develop short-term fishing forecasts for the next three to
five years,² Brown says.
 
³Armed with the information in this outlook, local community and
sportfishing leaders can choose to be proactive about counteracting the
trends predicted by the model,² says Connelly.
 
The researchers say a decline in fishing activity on Lake Ontario mirrors a
declining interest in fishing and outdoor recreation seen nationally. Brown
and Connelly predict a decline in Lake Ontario fishing trips of 32 percent
with an associated decline in direct expenditures of $17.3 million to $19
million (in 2007 dollar terms) and 330 jobs in the next five years.
 
Connelly says, ³There are ways to impact the future to help reduce the
predicted loss of $19 million and 330 jobs associated with the lake¹s
angling activity if no action is taken,²
 
The report notes that DEC biologists suggest some anglers have already
adjusted their fishing techniques to catch more bass. Connelly says if other
anglers follow suit, the bass harvest could increase and perhaps reduce the
predicted decline from 32 percent to 19 percent.
 
Statewide Survey Measures Angling¹s Economic Impact
Analysis of a 2007 statewide survey of anglers fishing New York State waters
estimates that anglers spent 1.5 million days fishing on Lake Ontario that
year, spending on average $35 per day at the fishing site and $17 en route,
creating an aggregate total expenditure of $80 million ($54 million at the
fishing site and $26 million en route).
 
The impact of tourist-anglers - those living outside the Lake Ontario county
fished in - is estimated at $60 million and 1,032 jobs. Approximately
one-sixth of the U.S. portion of Lake Ontario¹s fishing effort can be
attributed to anglers who live outside New York State with just over half
attributed to anglers who fished Lake Ontario from a county other than the
one they lived in. 
 
The average tourist-angler expenditures at the Lake Ontario fishing
destination site were $53 per day ($43 million total for 2007).
 
Brown and Connelly point out that fishing¹s economic impact includes local
businesses hiring additional labor and purchasing goods to support the
demand for their products and services.
 
³Each tourist-angler purchase starts a chain reaction of spending and
re-spending that has a cumulative impact on the level of sales, jobs, and
other economic components of the local economy,² Brown says.
 
The indirect value (related sector business spending) of angling to all
seven Lake Ontario counties was more than $9 million in 2007. Induced value
associated with the income of employees and business owners in all seven
Lake Ontario counties in 2007 was estimated at $8 million.
 
Brown and Connelly note that ³leakage² of fishing-related dollars out of the
local economy is seen, for example, in money going to out-of-state fuel
suppliers and costs associated with restaurant purchases from out-of-state
growers and food processors.
 
The researchers measured the impact of fishing activity on Lake Ontario by
the effects of tourist spending on jobs. The total number of full-time job
equivalents attributable to recreational tourist fishing on Lake Ontario in
2007 was just over 1,000.
 
Brown and Connelly say the current recession could lower fishing activity
even more or result in a shift in fishing-related tourism such as more day
trips. 
 
Brown and Connelly reviewed 30 years¹ worth of data from New York State
Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC), NYSDEC Cape Vincent
Fisheries Station, and New York Sea Grant, and newspaper articles on Lake
Ontario from the Syracuse Post Standard. Datasets and documents included
Great Lakes¹ states fishing license sales, recreational boating
expenditures, charter fishing industry and fishing derby impact summaries,
open boat fishing trips data, fiscal analysis of fisheries¹ impact, water
level impacts on recreational boating and associated businesses, reports on
food web and fisheries¹ impact, and angler surveys.
 
Funding for the study was provided by National Sea Grant College Program of
the U.S. Department of Commerce¹s National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration through the Research Foundation of the State University of
New York on behalf of New York Sea Grant.
 
The complete ³Lake Ontario Sportfishing: Trends, Analysis, and Outlook² can
be downloaded as a pdf from the web at www.nysgextension.org
<http://www.nysgextension.org>  or from the Cornell University Department of
Natural Resources website at
http://www.dnr.cornell.edu/hdru/PUBS/HDRUReport09-3.pdf
# # #


Quick Facts from ³Lake Ontario Sportfishing: Trends, Analysis, and Outlook²
by Tommy L. Brown and Nancy A. Connelly of Cornell University¹s Department
of Natural Resources, published in partnership with New York Sea Grant
Contacts: Dave White, 315-312-3042; Nancy Connelly, 607-255-2830
 
·      In 2007, angler effort on Lake Ontario and embayments exceeded 1.5
million angler days and $54 million in expenditures in lake border counties
(Niagara, Orleans, Monroe, Wayne, Cayuga, Oswego, Jefferson). p. 1
 
·      The first salmon runs in the Salmon River in Oswego County and other
Lake Ontario tributaries occurred in 1973. The salmon fishery attained
lakewide importance to sport anglers in the 1980s with year-round activity.
p. 1
 
·      A substantial number of stakeholders developed around the salmon
fishery: anglers, charter captains, sporting goods stores, bait & tackle
shops, guides, service sectors (lodging, restaurants, groceries, convenience
stores), local governments, law enforcement). p. 1
 
·      Warmwater fishing for bass accounted for approximately 21 percent of
all angler days lakewide in 2007. p.1
 
·      The number of charter fishing businesses using Lake Ontario increased
from 33 in 1975 to 450 in 1985. Charter fishing trips comprised almost 10
percent of all open water fishing boat trips in 1990.
 
·      More than 80 percent of the open water trips on the lake since 1985
have been for salmon and trout. p. 2-3
 
·      The estimated expenditures of Empire States Lake Ontario (ESLO)
fishing derby entrants in 2007 was $2.8 million. p. 2
 
·      Fishing effort for Lake Ontario peaked in 1990 and has trended
downward since. Peak fishing effort on Lake Erie occurred in 1989. p. 6
 
·      ³We have found that in the year of a fee increase the number of
fishing licenses sold decreases sharply, but then rebounds over several
years,² report co-author and Cornell University researcher Nancy Connelly
says, ³and, as would be expected, the model suggests that as more fish are
stocked, the number of licenses sold increases.² p. 8
 
·      The ³Lake Ontario Sportfishing: Trends, Analysis, and Outlook² notes
that the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation believes a
fishing license fee increase will occur sometime in the next five years. p.
9
 
·      Brown and Connelly note that ³the overall increase and subsequent
decline in (fishing) license sales in Great Lakes counties in the 1980s and
90s appears to be due primarily to nonresident license sales.² A gradual
decline in the number of fishing licenses sold will occur as the population
ages. p. 10, 18
 
·      In 1990, the proportion of non-resident fishing licenses sold was
highest in Orleans (71%) and Oswego (70%) counties. p. 10
 
·      Recreational fishing expenditures by anglers living outside the
county fished in were highest in Oswego and Jefferson counties. The Western
Basin counties ­ Niagara, Orleans and Monroe ­ attract a more local
clientele. p.15 
 
·      Boaters traveling from outside the Lake Ontario region to Lake
Ontario spent an estimated $38 million in 2003 and supported an estimated
760 jobs in local communities. p. 18


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