Water quality is a poor predictor of recreational hotspots in England

Maintaining and improving water quality is key to the protection and restoration of aquatic ecosystems, which provide important benefits to society. In Europe, the Water Framework Directive (WFD) defines water quality based on a set of biological, hydro-morphological and chemical targets, and aims to reach good quality conditions in all river bodies by the year 2027. While recently it has been argued that achieving these goals will deliver and enhance ecosystem services, in particular recreational services, there is little empirical evidence demonstrating so. Here we test the hypothesis that good water quality is associated with increased utilization of recreational services, combining four surveys covering walking, boating, fishing and swimming visits, together with water quality data for all water bodies in eight River Basin Districts (RBDs) in England. We compared the percentage of visits in areas of good water quality to a set of null models accounting for population density, income, age distribution, travel distance, public access, and substitutability. We expect such association to be positive, at least for fishing (which relies on fish stocks) and swimming (with direct contact to water). We also test if these services have stronger association with water quality relative to boating and walking alongside rivers, canals or lakeshores. In only two of eight RBDs (Northumbria and Anglian) were both criteria met (positive association, strongest for fishing and swimming) when comparing to at least one of the null models. This conclusion is robust to variations in dataset size. Our study suggests that achieving the WFD water quality goals may not enhance recreational ecosystem services, and calls for further empirical research on the connection between water quality and ecosystem services

Distributive Justice in Fisheries Management

Based on current demand for fishery resources and the status of fish stocks, many marine species are scarce. When scarcity requires the allocation of fishery resources among competing interests, not all interests will receive the allocation they want or feel they deserve. There will be claims of unjust allocations, and the issues of fairness and justice will be raised by anglers and commercial fishers. The Magnuson Fishery Conservation and Management Act requires that allocations be fair and equitable; however, what is meant by these terms, or the likely response to allocations perceived to be unfair or inequitable, is not clear or easily agreed upon. Some means of understanding, evaluating, and responding to these claims is needed. Distributive justice pertains to the fairness of the distribution of conditions and goods that affect individual well-being. Two major conceptual approaches to the study of distributive justice are equity theory and relative deprivation. Differences between these two conceptual approaches are discussed. Two case studies illustrate how equity theory and relative deprivation can be applied to enhance management understanding of constituency response to allocation decisions. Five research needs are identified.14-1

Statewide survey of boatowners in Texas and their saltwater fishing activity

-The saltwater fishing patterns of the statewide population of pleasure boatowners were investigated. Data were obtained through a survey of registered boatowners in Texas. More than 60 percent of the registered boatowners in Texas used their boats for fishing during the study year. The Galveston Bay area, with almost one-half of all bay boat fishing activity and more than one-third of all offshore fishing activity, was identified as the state's center of marine recreational boat-fishing. Port Aransas was the second leading offshore recreational fishing port with almost 25 percent of all offshore tripshttp://gbic.tamug.edu/request.ht