2007 Survey of the Recreational Cod Fishery of Newfoundland and Labrador

Age Profile

Detailed ages were collected from anglers aged 16 years of age and older (Table 8). Adult male anglers averaged 51.2 years of age, while adult female anglers were more than 4 years younger, averaging 47.0 years of age. The adult anglers with the highest average ages, for both males and females, at 54.0 and 51.9 years respectively, lived in the Burin-South Coast area (Table 4.6). They were closely followed by anglers residing in the Bonavista-Trinity area, with the average age for male anglers at 53.8 and female anglers at 51.2. The youngest anglers participating in the 2007 NL recreational cod fishery lived in Labrador, with males averaging 46.3 years and females averaging 36.4 years.

As would be expected, anglers fishing in NAFO sub-division 2J, bordering on Labrador, were the youngest of all anglers based on the area fished, averaging 46.0 years for males and 42.0 years for females (Table 9). Male anglers fishing in NAFO sub-division 4R were the oldest on average at 53.4 years of age. Female anglers fishing in NAFO sub-division 3Pn were the oldest, averaging 50.8 years on average. As can be seen in Figure 2, of all anglers by sex and age group, the greatest proportion of anglers, 15.5%, were males in the 55 to 64 years of age group. These male anglers represented 24% of all male anglers. The highest proportion of female anglers, 8.7%, was in the 45 to 54 years of age group, representing 24% of all female anglers.