Interesting Facts About Alberta's Anglers
Fishing is very popular in Alberta, both with Alberta's Anglers and visitors. and with good reason. Alberta beautiful lakes and rivers, containing more than 50 species of fish are good reasons to appreciate this place. Every year, we can observe that nothing can stem the tide of Alberta anglers flowing for some good fishing coupled with a family vacation. There is a growing number of anglers who are looking for suggestions on the best place to go and who are eager to catch but also to brag about their catch. The question that naturally arrives is how can we really know to which extent the Alberta anglers' stories correspond to the reality? Alberta fisheries monitoring tools
There are two types of fisheries monitoring tools: · On-site creel surveys; · Off-site techniques such as mail and telephone surveys. Of course, the first method is generally preferred to the second one because it is considered to provide accurate harvest data based on direct observation and tallying of anglers' catch. On the other hand, even if off-site survey techniques should not be used for estimating catch, we must take in consideration the low cost of such techniques which renders them very attractive. In Alberta, the most used technique for monitoring walleye sport fisheries implies access-point creel surveys at certain lakes. This type of surveys are necessary in order to determine angler effort as well as harvests of walleyes, northern pike (Esox lucius) or yellow perch ( Perca flavescens). The data gathered through access-point surveys or from interviews with anglers is used to estimate the status of fisheries. Alberta Anglers' Exaggeration of Catches We all know that anglers exaggerate their catch, but the question is whether exaggeration is constant with respect to the actual catch. Alberta anglers report daily catching and releasing a number of protected-length walleyes. A study made in 22 Alberta walleye fisheries, covering the period between 1991 and 2000, shows that the average exaggeration factor for the catch of protected-length walleyes was 2.2. There were two fisheries where Alberta anglers may not have exaggerated but rather underestimated their catch of walleyes. One interesting observation to be made is that the two fisheries had both high catch rates for protected-length walleyes. The most astonishing (or maybe not..) conclusion of the mentioned study was that exaggeration in catches was not at all constant but increased exponentially with decreasing catch rate, meaning that Alberta anglers lie even more if they catch less.. Some other fact about Alberta Anglers Most of licensed Alberta anglers are male, ageing between 35-54 years old. The overall average age of female and male anglers is 42 and 44, respectively. Alberta contains four national parks and three Fish Management Zones: · Eastern Slopes Zones · Parkland Prairie Zone · Northern Boreal Zone More than half of Alberta anglers are leaving in the Parkland-Prairie Zone (the place of residence of a great majority of Alberta's population). There are four important rivers which flow through the Parkland-Prairie and they are warm and large during most of the summer. We can also find shallow lakes and reservoirs and most of the fish that Alberta's anglers manage to catch are from one of the fallowing species: yellow perch, northern pike , lake whitefish, and walleye (in some of the reservoirs). Eastern Slopes Zone contains about one third of Alberta anglers while Northern Boreal Zone contains the fewest number of Alberta's anglers. |
