This BTT report is well worth the read – some astonishing finds. Please consider joining the Bonefish & Tarpon Trust – they’ve got your back covered! Click on logo to view BTT website.
Background
[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he Florida Keys has long been the focus of Flats fishing in the United States by U.S. anglers and by anglers throughout the world. In spite of this world-wide recognition, very little effort has been directed toward the scientific study of the Keys Flats fishery, their anglers, and the economic effects of this recreational fishing activity. This project examined the economic impact of the Florida Keys Flats fishery. The Flats fishery is defined as angling for species commonly found and caught by anglers in the shallow-water near-shore environment extending from the Atlantic side of the Keys into Florida Bay and the Gulf of Mexico North and West of the Keys.
While no study has focused on the economic impacts of Florida Keys fishing in general or Flats fishing specifically, several relatively recent economic studies have been conducted in Florida and the South Florida region that focused on near-shore fisheries for tarpon in the Caloosahatchee River and Charlotte Harbor area on Florida’s West coast (Fedler 2010) and St. Lucie River on the East coast of Florida (Fedler 2011). Both of these studies focused on the regional fishery for tarpon because of constraints on funding and the rather isolated nature of the fishery in the Charlotte Harbor and St. Lucie River areas.
A study that is more directly related to this Florida Keys project involved southern Florida anglers fishing the saltwater reaches of Everglades National Park (Fedler 2009). A good portion of the park’s area encompasses Florida Bay and extends into Gulf of Mexico waters on the western edge of the park. Much of the Upper Keys fishing area overlaps with waters inside national park boundaries and included angling down to the North side of the Keys. This study found that about 17% of the anglers fishing Everglades National Park (ENP) saltwater specifically targeted bonefish while 20% targeted tarpon. The economic impact of these two fisheries was $154 million for bonefish and $174 million for tarpon fishing in the Florida economy. The study did not differentiate expenditures made by anglers in the region surrounding ENP and elsewhere in the state. Expenditures made by anglers specifically in the Keys was identified in this study to show the effect of direct angler expenditures made in the Keys as well as the State of Florida.
To read the complete study click here […]
