Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

An open-sourced, web-based application to improve our ability to understand hunter and angler purchasing behavior from license data

October 1, 2020

State fish and wildlife agencies rely on hunters and anglers (i.e., sportspersons) to fund management actions through revenue generated from license sales and excise taxes on hunting and fishing equipment. There is a need to develop new techniques that bridge the information gap on participation and provide agencies with an understanding of sportspersons at a resolution that can more directly inform efforts to engage sportspersons. Monitoring sportsperson participation using information about their license-purchasing behavior has the potential to reveal important patterns in recruitment (first-time purchase of a hunting or fishing license), retention (continued purchase of licenses across multiple years), and reactivation (purchase a license after several years with no purchases). Providing up-to-date information on what licenses are purchased, when and by whom may prove invaluable to managers and policy makers. We present a customizable, open-source, web-based application—huntfishapp—that allows the user to query and interact with a structured query language (SQL) hunting and fishing license database. The huntfishapp serves as an informational resource and tool that provides a framework to share information on license sales across an agency, with intent of increasing understanding of (a) sportspersons and (b) how management decisions affect sportspersons. Data dashboards, like the huntfishapp, allow agencies and non-governmental organizations to become more knowledgeable of their customer base and provide a greater understanding of management-decision effects on hunting and fishing participation.

Publication Year 2020
Title An open-sourced, web-based application to improve our ability to understand hunter and angler purchasing behavior from license data
DOI 10.1371/journal.pone.0226397
Authors Nathaniel B. Price, Christopher J. Chizinski, Joseph J. Fontaine, Kevin L. Pope, Micaela Rahe, Jeff Rawlinson
Publication Type Article
Publication Subtype Journal Article
Series Title PLoS ONE
Index ID 70228380
Record Source USGS Publications Warehouse
USGS Organization Coop Res Unit Atlanta