Camp, E. V., W. E. Pine III, K. Havens, A. S. Kane, C. J. Walters, T. Irani, A. B. Lindsey, and J. G. Morris. 2015. Collapse of a historic oyster fishery: diagnosing causes and identifying paths toward increased resilience. Ecology and Society 20(3):45.http://dx.doi.org/10.5751/ES-07821-200345

Pine, W. E., III, C. J. Walters, E. V. Camp, R. Bouchillon, R. Ahrens, L. Sturmer, and M. E. Berrigan, 2015. The curious case of eastern oyster Crassostrea virginica stock status in Apalachicola Bay, Florida. Ecology and Society 20(3):46.http://dx.doi.org/10.5751/ES-07827-200346

Catch and release (CR) is an increasingly common strategy for recreational fisheries in which sustaining high catch rates is important. The success of this strategy is reduced if the released fish are temporarily invulnerable to capture due to behavioral changes, as recent research suggests. Here, we explore how temporary fishing closures with short openings might be used in CR fisheries to increase the catch-related utility associated with angler satisfaction from catches. We simulated generic fisheries in single-lake and multiple-lake systems and found that regular, temporary closures could increase catch-related utility—but predominately under the key assumption that angler satisfaction increases disproportionately with increasing catch rates. In the multiple-lake case, a strategy of rotating temporary closures could provide greater catch-related utility than continuously open fisheries, but this would depend upon anglers' willingness to redistribute effort from closed waters to open waters. A key implication of these results is that even in CR fisheries, effort limitation may be necessary to provide quality angling opportunities. Our results also emphasize the importance of understanding how vulnerable pool dynamics can differ across fisheries and potentially interact with other processes and mechanisms that drive the observed changes in catchability and catch rates.

Regional economic assessments (REAs), including economic contribution and impact analyses, are often used in resource-based industries to inform policymakers, elected officials, and the general public of an industry’s role within the regional economy. However, REAs have been difficult to conduct for the aquaculture industry due to issues with data availability and quality. This paper will provide an overview of economic contribution analysis, the challenges associated with applying these analyses to U.S. aquaculture production, and techniques to overcome these challenges. The Florida shellfish aquaculture industry is used as an example to highlight some of the data issues and how using different methods within a REA can lead to inaccurate representations of an industry’s economic contribution.