The influence of angler values, involvement, catch orientation, satisfaction, agency trust, and demographics on support for habitat protection and restoration versus stocking in publicly managed waters

Resource managers benefit from knowledge of angler support for fisheries management strategies. Factors including angler values (protection, utilitarian, and dominance), involvement (attraction, centrality, social, identity affirmation, and expression), catch-related motivations (catching some, many, and big fish, and keeping fish), satisfaction, agency trust, and demographics may relate to fisheries management preferences. Using results from a mail survey of Minnesota resident anglers, we explored how these factors were related to budget support for fish stocking relative to habitat protection/restoration. Results suggest that values, angler involvement, catch orientation, satisfaction, total and recent years fishing, age, and education influence relative support for stocking versus habitat protection/restoration. Utilitarian values, angling centrality, an orientation to catch many fish, satisfaction with the number of fish caught, number of recent years fishing, and age positively related to support for stocking over habitat management, while protection values, attraction to angling, total years fishing, and education level were negatively related to relative support for stocking.