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2000 Survey of Recreational Fishing in Canada

Survey Highlights

Summary

In 2000, 3.6 million adult anglers participated in a variety of recreational fishing activities in Canada. This represents a steady decline from the 4.2 million in 1995. Despite this, the number of non-Canadian anglers visiting the country in 2000 actually increased by 25,000 compared with 1995. The 3.6 million anglers covered in the survey fished for 47.9 million days and caught 233 million fish of all species. Of the fish caught, only 84.6 million, or 36.4%, were kept.

Recreational fishing is an important economic activity in the natural resources sector. In total, anglers spent $6.7 billion in Canada in 2000. Of this amount, $4.7 billion was directly associated with recreational fishing. Anglers spent over $2.4 billion on trip expenses such as package deals, accommodation, food, transportation, fishing supplies and other services directly related to their angling activities. Investments in 2000 totaled close to $4.3 billion for such durable goods as fishing equipment, boats, motors, camping equipment, special vehicles and real estate. Anglers estimated that almost $2.3 billion of these investment expenditures were wholly attributable to recreational fishing.

Nonresident anglers took over 3.5 million trips in Canada for fishing and other reasons. Visitors to Canada made over 2 million of these trips with the balance being trips by Canadians visiting other provinces and territories. Overall, nonresident anglers fished on 52% of their trips. Non-Canadians fished on 69% of their trips across the border. Of the total days spent in other provinces and territories (4.3 million), visiting Canadian anglers fished on almost 30% of these days. This compares to visiting anglers from other countries, who fished on over 64% of their days spent in Canada.

In 2000, the "Year of the Volunteer", Canadian anglers dedicated over a million days to habitat clean-up and other activities related to enhancing their recreational fishing environment.

The framework of socio-economic and biological information provided in this survey will help managers of this resource better assess and manage fish resources. For example, the consistent decrease in the number of resident anglers could be linked to a change in lifestyle while the catch and release results achieved over the past five years confirm that anglers have increased their efforts to conserve this important natural resource.

In 2000, Canada's newest territory, Nunavut, was surveyed as a separate jurisdiction and not part of the Northwest Territories.

Comparisons with 1995

Comparative information is provided in Appendix 6.

In general terms, there was a 13.9% decrease in the number of active adult anglers since 1995. The number of nonresident. Canadian anglers decreased by 6.3%, whereas the number of non-Canadians increased by 3.3%. As would be expected, the major drop came about due to the drop in the number of resident anglers, falling 18.2%. This is a major factor that must be kept in mind when evaluating all resident information. The number of days that anglers fished dropped by 13.2%, however, the average number of days fished remained fairly steady at 13.2 days for all anglers, and at 15.3 days for resident anglers. Another important result shows that the number of fish caught fell by 8.5% compared with 1995, while the number of fish kept fell by 25.4%, indicating a continuing trend among anglers to practice catch and release. Resident anglers kept 27.3% fewer fish than in 1995 while non-resident Canadians kept 25.8% fewer and foreigners, 12.1% fewer.

There was an 11.6% decrease in major purchases and investments overall, despite a 179% increase made by foreign anglers since the 1995 survey. Resident anglers recorded a decrease in all categories except camping equipment, which had only a modest increase of 3.5%. In 2000, resident anglers spent much less on real estate (down 39%) and fishing equipment (down 26%). Foreign anglers increased their spending significantly on boating equipment (up 285%) and real estate (up 220%). Nonresident Canadians increased their spending in all categories, but most particularly on special vehicles, increasing by 224% over 1995.

The same patterns of spending hold true for direct expenditures on such items as food, lodging and transportation, where an overall decrease of 5.3% was attributed to resident anglers, who spent 18.3% less than in 1995. On average, at $533 per active angler, residents spent the same amount as in 1995. Based on this fact, the drop in direct expenses for fishing was entirely attributed to the drop in the number of resident anglers. Purchases of package deals increased by 41% for foreigners and by 26% for nonresident Canadians, but decreased by 25% for residents.

Angler Profile

There were 3.6 million active adult anglers in Canada in 2000, a decrease of 14% from the 4.2 million in 1995 (Table 1). Of these anglers, 2.7 million were resident anglers (anglers who fished in their home province or territory). Male anglers make up 75% of resident adult anglers, 81% of Canadian nonresident anglers and 86% of all non-Canadian nonresident anglers. On average, active male anglers were somewhat older than active female anglers, 46 years of age compared to 43. Active non-Canadian anglers were older than both residents and visiting Canadian anglers, averaging 50 years for males and 49 years for female anglers.

Table 1: Numbers and characteristics of active adult anglers.
  Resident Nonresident Canadian Nonresident Non-Canadian Total
Total Active Adult Anglers 2,688,139 173,919 774,006 3,636,065
Males 2,008,162 141,575 668,800 2,818,538
average age 44 47 50 46
Females 679,977 32,344 105,206 817,527
average age 42 44 49 43

The largest numbers of resident anglers were concentrated in Ontario and Quebec (Table 2), however, the participation rate, that is the proportion of the population taking part in recreational fishing, was highest in Newfoundland and Labrador followed by the Yukon. Additionally, almost 174,000 nonresident Canadian anglers (anglers who lived in Canada but who fished outside their home province or territory), and over 774,000 nonresident foreign anglers (persons who lived outside Canada but fished in this country) actively fished in 2000.

Table 2: Participation rate of active resident anglers by jurisdiction.
Jurisdiction Active Resident Anglers
Number Rate (%)
Newfoundland and Labrador 101,945 19.0
Prince Edward Island 8,617 6.2
Nova Scotia 56,110 6.0
New Brunswick 53,132 7.0
Quebec 813,590 11.0
Ontario 814,887 7.0
Manitoba 136,334 11.9
Saskatchewan 130,076 12.7
Alberta 182,044 6.0
British Columbia Freshwater 235,691 5.8
British Columbia Tidal 145,495 3.6
Yukon Territory 4,835 15.8
North West Territories 4,720 11.5
Nunavut 662 2.4
Total 2,688,139 8.7

British Columbia's share of nonresident Canadian anglers, was 37.7%, the highest among jurisdictions. Ontario's share of foreign anglers was 72.8%, maintaining it's status as the most popular fishing destination for non-Canadians.

Approximately 82% of nonresident anglers were foreigners, mainly Americans coming from the East North Central and West North Central census regions of the United States (Figure 1, Table 3). The remaining nonresident anglers were Canadians who fished outside their home provinces and territories, with almost 64% of these anglers coming from the prairie provinces.

Figure 1: Regional distribution of United States residents who held Canadian angling licences in 2000.
Figure 1 - Map of Regional distribution of United States residents who held Canadian angling licences in 2000.
Table 3: Origin of nonresident licensed anglers.
Jurisdiction/State Census Group Total Number
Canadian
    Maritimes 5,413
    Quebec 14,984
    Ontario 36,813
    Prairies 113,998
    British Columbia 8,709
    Territories 1,746
    Unspecified Canada 25
Canada Total 181,688
Non-Canadian
    New England 11,910
    Mid Atlantic 88,388
    East North Central 334,318
    West North Central 163,615
    Mountain 29,993
    Pacific 83,737
    South Atlantic 37,857
    East South Central 11,066
    West South Central 20,438
    Alaska 1,935
    Hawaii 454
    Unspecified U.S.A. 1,947
    Mex.,C.A.,S.A.,Car 51
    United Kingdom 1,770
    Europe 3,389
    Asia 110
    Australia/Pacific Region 218
Non-Canadian Total 791,195
All Nonresident Anglers 972,882

Fishing Effort

Fishing is a major recreational activity in Canada, given its abundance of freshwater and its extensive coastlines. Adult anglers fished a total of 47.9 million days in Canada in 2000 (Table 4). Over a third of these days were spent in Ontario followed by a quarter in Quebec. Most fishing activity (93.8%) took place in freshwater.

Table 4: Angling effort (in angler days) in freshwater and saltwater.
Waters Resident Nonresident
Canadian		 Nonresident
Non-Canadian		 Total
Freshwater 38,636,947 1,112,932 5,178,305 44,928,184
Saltwater 2,518,726 162,307 276,466 2,957,499
Total 41,155,673 1,275,239 5,454,771 47,885,683
Average Days Fished 15.3 7.3 7.0 13.2

Resident anglers fishing within their home jurisdictions accounted for 86% of all days fished in 2000. Only 2.7% of total fishing effort was attributed to Canadians fishing in other jurisdictions, while foreign anglers accounted for the remaining 11.3% of days fished in 2000. Resident anglers fished an average of 15.3 days, while nonresident Canadians averaged 7.3 days and non-Canadians 7.0 days.

Harvest

In 2000, anglers caught almost 233 million fish of all species and retained about 85 million (Tables 5 and 6). Resident anglers caught 73% of the fish and they kept over 84% or, on average, 26 fish each over the year. Nonresident Canadians kept an average of 7 fish each, while visiting foreign anglers retained an average of 16 fish of all species. About 46% of all fish reported were caught in the province of Ontario, however, the overall proportion of fish retained by anglers in Ontario was only 31%, compared to 42% for anglers in Quebec.

In terms of species (Figure 2), trout accounted for 21.6% of all fish caught, followed by walleye (20.6%) and perch (14.8%). For both nonresident angler groups, walleye was the species caught most often accounting for 25.6% of the foreign angler catch and 34.4% of the nonresident Canadian catch (Table 5). Walleye also accounted for the highest proportion of species retained by these anglers (27% and 32 % respectively).

Table 5: Fish caught, by species.
Species Resident Nonresident
Canadian		 Nonresident
Non-Canadian		 Total
Trout 46,515,329 1,140,144 2,674,814 50,330,287
Walleye 24,965,495 1,478,297 20,296,185 46,739,977
Perch 27,042,739 705,344 6,613,220 34,361,303
Northern Pike 14,899,533 1,141,175 11,757,325 27,798,033
Bass 14,478,513 353,664 7,691,806 22,523,983
Smelt 8,207,188 541 12,894 8,220,623
Salmon 2,668,898 298,441 599,174 3,566,513
Whitefish 1,061,229 33,702 97,212 1,192,143
Cod 1,083,160 1,886 1,160 1,086,206
Kokanee 562,828 77,531 28,742 669,100
Mackerel 516,855 3,476 458 520,789
Grayling 157,774 45,671 153,963 357,408
Charr 84,424 3,971 4,055 92,451
Other 25,729,080 497,624 9,079,788 35,306,492
Total 167,973,042 5,781,469 59,010,797 232,765,309

Overall, anglers retained 36.4% of the fish they caught. Resident anglers kept 42.3%; nonresident anglers, 21.8%; and, foreign anglers, 20.9% (Table 6).

Table 6: Fish kept, by species.
Species Resident Nonresident
Canadian		 Nonresident
Non-Canadian		 Total % Kept
Trout 26,492,685 251,746 422,524 27,166,955 54.0
Perch 11,633,052 131,461 2,839,952 14,604,465 42.5
Walleye 10,761,937 408,410 3,287,214 14,457,561 30.9
Smelt 7,034,018 419 12,143 7,046,580 85.7
Northern Pike 3,405,072 153,181 894,662 4,452,915 16.0
Bass 2,445,935 27,135 814,885 3,287,954 14.6
Salmon 1,032,369 75,360 174,352 1,282,081 35.9
Cod 1,024,191 1,463 542 1,026,196 94.5
Mackerel 452,555 2,583 366 455,503 87.5
Kokanee 369,675 58,488 16,827 444,991 66.5
Whitefish 379,586 7,255 29,658 416,499 34.9
Charr 53,533 1,202 262 54,997 59.5
Grayling 20,942 6,790 12,173 39,905 11.2
Other 5,941,770 137,677 3,810,077 9,889,524 28.0
Total 71,047,320 1,263,171 12,315,636 84,626,127 36.4
% kept 42.3 21.8 20.9 36.4  

In general, anglers kept higher proportions of salt-water fish such as cod (95%), mackerel (88%) and smelt (86%) compared to freshwater species such as trout (54%), perch (43%) and salmon (36%). The species least favoured for retention were northern pike (16%), bass (14.6%) and grayling (11.2%).

Figure 2: Fish Caught by Species

Figure 2 : pie chart showing the percentage of fish caught by selected species. Trout was at 21.6%, Walleye at 20.6%, Other at 15.2%, Perch at 14.8%, Northern Pike at 11.9%, Bass at 9.7% and Smelt at 3.5%

Nonresident Trip Characteristics

Nonresident anglers made over 3.5 million trips within Canada and fished on 52.4% of their trips (Table 7). Nonresident Canadian anglers fished on only 30.4% of their trips to other jurisdictions, while anglers visiting Canada fished on 69.2% of their trips, underlining the appeal of Canada as a fishing destination. Nonresidents spent a total of 12.8 million visitor days, of which over half (52.7%) were spent fishing. Day trips for fishing accounted for almost 30% of all fishing trips in 2000, but only 8% of all days fished.

Table 7: Trip characteristics of nonresident anglers.
Characteristics Nonresident Canadian Nonresident
Non-Canadian		 Total
Trips - All Reasons 1,527,657 2,006,225 3,533,882
Fishing Trips 464,627 1,388,853 1,853,480
  - % of all trips 30.4 69.2 52.4
Days Spent for All Reasons 4,264,746 8,497,539 12,762,285
Days Fished 1,275,239 5,454,771 6,730,010
  - % of all trips 29.9 64.2 52.7
Day Trips for Fishing 131,361 418,287 549,648
Total Nights Spent on Fishing Trips 1,820,419 5,828,690 7,649,109

Nonresidents visiting Canada, primarily visiting the province of Ontario, had a proportionately higher percentage of day trips than Canadians visiting other jurisdictions, reflecting the proximity of Ontario to large American border cities.

Almost 39% of Canadians fishing outside their home jurisdictions chose British Columbia as a destination with 21.2% fishing in tidal waters and 16.6% fishing in freshwater. Ontario was the second most popular destination with 24.3% of Canadian nonresidents fishing in the province and accounting for 27.6% of the days spent by nonresident Canadian on fishing trips.

Ontario was the destination on 71% of all nonresident, non-Canadian anglers' trips, 72% of their days spent in Canada and 76% of their days fished. British Columbia's freshwater and tidal water fisheries accounted for about 5% of the days spent by non-Canadians. A total of 7.6 million nights were spent by all non-resident anglers while fishing in Canada, with more than 5.4 million spent on overnight trips by non-Canadians. About 76% of these nights were spent in Ontario.

Direct Expenditures

Despite a decrease of almost 14% in the number of anglers, only a limited decrease of 5% in direct expenditures was reported. An overall drop in the numbers of resident anglers, despite consistent average spending, was responsible for the decrease. Anglers spent $2.4 billion on goods and services directly related to their angling activities (Table 8, Figure 3). Resident anglers spent $1.4 billion of this amount (59.7%), or $533 per angler (no change from 1995). Canadian nonresidents spent $138 million (6.8%), or $794 per angler and foreign nonresidents spent $830 million (34.6%), with an average of $1,072 per angler.

Table 8: Expenditures directly attributable to recreational fishing.
Expenditure Resident Nonresident Canadian Nonresident
Non-Canadian		 Total
Food and Lodging 486,197,223 47,053,794 270,758,686 804,009,703
Transportation 575,378,038 36,606,364 120,436,536 732,420,939
Fishing Services 114,155,479 13,127,554 66,329,577 193,612,611
Fishing Supplies 134,833,213 5,593,775 28,050,158 168,477,145
Packages1 116,606,418 35,231,935 342,210,908 494,049,261
Other 5,055,325 526,116 2,189,248 7,770,690
Total 1,432,225,696 138,139,539 829,975,113 2,400,340,348
Average Per Active Angler 532.79 794.28 1,072.31 660.15

Transportation costs was the largest single category for resident anglers at $575 million, or 40% of all trip expenses. The next largest outlay by residents was for food and lodging, for which residents spent $486 million, or 34% of the total. As a single category, non-resident Canadians spent more on food and lodging (34%). However, transportation costs and package deals were areas of significant expenditure, accounting for 26% and 25% of total expenses, respectively. Non-Canadians spent the largest amount of their direct expenditures on package deals, totaling $342, or 41% of all trip expenses. An additional $271 million was spent on food and lodging costs, accounting for an additional 33% of direct expenditures.

Over 41% of all expenditures were made in Ontario, followed by 19.7% in British Columbia (expenditures in tidal waters at 10.8%; in freshwater at 8.9%), followed by Quebec at 19.5%. For those purchasing package deals, most was spent in Ontario at 41%, followed by Quebec at 17% and British Columbia tidal waters at 16%.

Ontario residents accounted for 33% of all expenditures made by resident anglers followed by Quebec at 29%. Nonresident Canadians favoured British Columbia, with 31% of their total direct expenditures made for fishing in tidal waters. Nonresident non-Canadians spent an overwhelming 62% of their direct expenditures in Ontario.

Figure 3: Expenditures directly attributable to recreational fishing.

Figure 3: bar graph showing the expenditures directly attributable to recreational fishing. Residents invested 34% in food and lodging, 40% in transportation, 8% in fishing services, 9% in fishing supplies, 8% in packages and 1% in other types. Canadian invested 34% in food and lodging, 26% in transportation, 10% in fishing services, 4% in fishing supplies, 26% in packages and 1% in other types. Finally, Non-canadian invested 32% in food and lodging, 15% in transportation, 8% in fishing services, 3% in fishing supplies, 41% in packages and 1% in other types.

Investments

In 2000, anglers invested almost $4.3 billion in boats, motors, camping gear, special vehicles, real estate and other durable goods (Table 9, Figure 4). Of this total, they estimated that $2.3 billion was directly attributable to their fishing activities.

Table 9: Major purchases or investments attributable (in whole or in part) to sport fishing.
Purchase or Investment Resident Nonresident Canadian Nonresident
Non-Canadian		 Total
Fishing Equipment 184,065,353 4,888,301 8,484,218 197,437,872
Boating Equipment 906,431,192 23,604,395 39,600,813 969,636,399
Camping Equipment 446,329,680 5,709,014 1,343,629 453,382,323
Special Vehicles 1,725,758,988 15,842,211 3,004,257 1,744,605,456
Land-Buildings 634,960,759 77,770,626 122,922,669 835,654,054
Other 89,015,128 1,725,643 4,435,071 95,175,841
Total 3,986,561,099 129,540,190 179,790,656 4,295,891,945
Average Per Active Angler 1,483.02 744.83 232.29 1,181.47

Resident anglers accounted for 92.8% of the total. Special vehicles such as ATV's and campers remain the most popular investment items totaling over $1.7 billion, of 42% of their total expenditures. These expenditures averaged almost $1,500 per active angler. Non-resident Canadians spent $78 million out of a total of $130 million on land and buildings. Expenditures for boating equipment and special vehicles accounted for an additional $22 million. The average expenditure per active angler was almost $750. Non-Canadian anglers spent almost $123 million out of almost $180 million of their investments on land and buildings (68%). In addition, these anglers spent almost $40 million on boating equipment (22%). The average expenditure per active anglers was almost $225.

Most investment expenditures were made in the province of Ontario (31.2%), followed by Quebec (25.7%), British Columbia (17.0%) and Alberta (11.3%).

Anglers were asked to estimate what percentage of each investment expenditure category was wholly attributable to their recreational fishing activities. Resident anglers indicated that $2.1 billion, or 53% of their total investment expenditures were directly related to recreational fishing activities. When comparing categories of investment, although special vehicles represented the majority of total investment expenditures in 2000, the attributable amount of purchases related to boating equipment surpassed special vehicles, accounting for 32% of the total, compared to 28% for special vehicles. Similarly, nonresident Canadians estimated that $58 million (45% of the total) was wholly attributable to recreational fishing. As was the case for total investments, land and buildings represented the main category for wholly attributable investment expenditures. For non-Canadians, the attributable amount was over $131 million (73% of the total), with land and buildings remaining the principal investment category. In total, anglers estimated that $2.3 billion, or 53% of their total investment, was attributable to their recreational fishing activities (Table 10, Figure 5).

Table 10: Major purchases or investments wholly attributable to recreational fishing.
Purchase Resident Nonresident Canadian Nonresident
Non-Canadian		 Total
Fishing Equipment 184,065,353 4,888,301 8,484,218 197,437,872
Boating Equipment 673,522,359 17,935,795 30,250,814 721,708,967
Camping Equipment 246,772,071 3,010,586 1,094,293 250,876,950
Special Vehicles 590,985,876 4,406,254 872,070 596,264,200
Land-Buildings 323,345,233 26,063,107 86,954,603 436,362,943
Other 75,941,450 1,441,641 3,796,249 81,179,340
Total 2,094,632,342 57,745,682 131,452,246 2,283,830,271
Average Per Active Angler 779.21 332.03 169.83 628.11
Figure 4: Distribution of investments made in whole or in part for recreational fishing.

Figure 4: bar graph showing the distribution of investments made in whole or in part for recreational fishing. Residents invested 5% in fishing equipment, 22% in Boating equipment, 11% in camping, 43% in special vehicles, 16% in land/buildings and 3% in other types. Canadian invested 4% in fishing equipment, 19% in Boating equipment, 5% in camping, 12% in special vehicles, 61% in land/buildings and 2% in other types. Finally, Non-canadian invested 5% in fishing equipment, 21% in Boating equipment, 1% in camping, 2% in special vehicles, 68% in land/buildings and 3% in other types.

Figure 5: Distribution of investments directly attributable to recreational fishing.

Figure 4: bar graph showing the distribution of investments directly attributable to recreational fishing. Residents invested 9% in fishing equipment, 32% in Boating equipment, 12% in camping, 28% in special vehicles, 16% in land/buildings and 3% in other types. Canadian invested 8% in fishing equipment, 31% in Boating equipment, 5% in camping, 8% in special vehicles, 45% in land/buildings and 2% in other types. Finally, Non-canadian invested 6% in fishing equipment, 23% in Boating equipment, 1% in camping, 1% in special vehicles, 66% in land/buildings and 2% in other types.

Volunteer Work in Support of Recreational Fisheries

The year 2000 was declared the "Year of the Volunteer" in Canada. In response to this initiative, anglers were asked to provide information on the days they devoted to such activities as habitat clean up, fish passage construction, stream stewardship, etc. The survey found that Canadian anglers spent over a million days on activities related to enhancing the recreational fisheries environment. Quebec and Ontario anglers devoted over 300,000 days in each of these provinces, followed by over 240,000 in British Columbia. Figure 6 shows the breakdown of the number of volunteer days by resident Canadians anglers.

Figure 6: Distribution of Volunteer Days Spent by Canadians in support of recreational fisheries.

Figure 6: pie chart showing the total number of distribution of volunteer days spent by Canadians in support of recreational fisheries. Quebec and Ontario spent 324,188 and 313,982 days respectively in support of recreational fisheries while British Columbia, Priaries and Territorie devoted 241,744 and 107,867 days in each provinces. Maritimes spent 63,780 days on activities related to enhancing the recreational fisheries environment

 

 

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