Climate change impacts on freshwater recreational fishing in the United States
Author(s)
Jones, Russell; Travers, Constance; Rodgers, Charles; Lazar, Brian; English, Eric; Lipton, Joshua; Vogel, Jason; Martinich, Jeremy; Strzepek, Kenneth Marc; ... Show more Show less
DownloadStrzepek_Climate change.pdf (1.492Mb)
PUBLISHER_CC
Publisher with Creative Commons License
Creative Commons Attribution
Terms of use
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
We estimated the biological and economic impacts of climate change on freshwater fisheries in the United States (U.S.). Changes in stream temperatures, flows, and the spatial extent of suitable thermal habitats for fish guilds were modeled for the coterminous U.S. using a range of projected changes in temperature and precipitation caused by increased greenhouse gases (GHGs). Based on modeled shifts in available thermal habitat for fish guilds, we estimated potential economic impacts associated with changes in freshwater recreational fishing using a national-scale economic model of recreational fishing behavior. In general, the spatial distribution of coldwater fisheries is projected to contract, being replaced by warm/cool water and high-thermally tolerant, lower recreational priority (i.e., “rough”) fisheries. Changes in thermal habitat suitability become more pronounced under higher emissions scenarios and at later time periods. Under the highest GHG emissions scenario, by year 2100 habitat for coldwater fisheries is projected to decline by roughly 50 % and be largely confined to mountainous areas in the western U.S. and very limited areas of New England and the Appalachians. The economic model projects a decline in coldwater fishing days ranging from 1.25 million in 2030 to 6.42 million by 2100 and that the total present value of national economic losses to freshwater recreational fishing from 2009 to 2100 could range from 81 million to 6.4 billion, depending on the emissions scenario and the choice of discount rate.
Date issued
2012-05Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Center for Global Change Science; Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Joint Program on the Science & Policy of Global ChangeJournal
Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change
Publisher
Springer-Verlag
Citation
Jones, Russell, Constance Travers, Charles Rodgers, Brian Lazar, Eric English, Joshua Lipton, Jason Vogel, Kenneth Strzepek, and Jeremy Martinich. “Climate change impacts on freshwater recreational fishing in the United States.” Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change 18, no. 6 (August 10, 2013): 731-758.
Version: Final published version
ISSN
1381-2386
1573-1596