Human Behavior and Harvest Regulations: Challenges and Opportunities for Fisheries Managers

Harvest regulation is one of the primary tools that natural resource managers use to manage exploited fish and wildlife populations. Unfortunately, the desired results of harvest regulations are frequently not realized. We contend that a broader and more thorough understanding of anglers could improve the success of harvest regulations. Using a case study from an interstate U.S. fishery for Walleye Sander vitreus, we demonstrate the counterintuitive responses anglers exhibited to differing Walleye harvest regulations. Three possible reasons are explored, using theories from social–science disciplines, to explain why anglers released a greater proportion of larger Walleye under a more liberalized harvest regulation: (1) harvest regulations serving as goals for anglers, (2) resolution of cognitive dissonance provided by restrictive harvest regulations, and (3) the perceived “value” assigned to specific fish or wildlife entity by harvest regulations. We conclude by discussing how taking an interdisciplinary approach (e.g., sociology, psychology, economics) to understanding angler behavior could be an exciting frontier for fisheries management and how this approach specifically holds promise for improving the success of harvest regulations.