Table 2. Total user-hours/day by period of the year for different types of activities by persons 

 entering Rockefeller Refuge at the Humble Canal landing, 1981. 



a See "Creel Census" section for period descriptions. 



Greatest daily use by visitors in the Humble Canal area were during periods 3 and 5 (Table 2) 

 and attributed to the fact that the shrimp take was set at 45 kg (100 lb)/party or boat. Castnetting 

 during the year was limited mostly to these periods. Castnetters on Rockefeller spent 83,392 user- 

 hours during 1981. No previous studies of recreational castnetting were found in the literature. 



The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (unpubl., as cited in Gosselink et al. 1979) found that 

 anglers in southwestern Louisiana (Vermilion Bay west to Sabine Pass) spent 479,000 user-days/year 

 sport shrimping. Juneau and Pollard (1981) observed that recreational shrimpers in 24,700 ha of 

 Vermilion Bay spent 22,064 boat-hours trawling/year. Party size was not considered in the latter 

 study so user-hours/year was probably much greater than the stated value. The 18,052 user- 

 hours/year spent by recreational trawlers launching from the Humble Canal boat ramp are 

 considerably less than those reported by Juneau and Pollard (1981). The availability of other 

 launch sites with access to waters open to trawling and near major population centers is a possible 

 reason for the relatively small amount of recreational trawling by persons launching from the 

 Humble Canal boat ramp. Also, sport shrimpers may have preferred to trawl in the protected 

 waters of Vermilion Bay rather than the Gulf of Mexico offshore from Rockefeller Refuge. 



Rod and reel fishing was a popular activity most of the year but declined in period 4 when 

 castnetting for shrimp was limited to 4.5 kg/party. Many visitors apparently engage in several 

 activities while on the refuge and castnet for shrimp a portion of the time and fish or crab during 

 the remainder. Visitors launching from the Humble Canal boat ramp spent 153,738 user-hours 

 engaged in recreational rod and reel fishing mostly outside the study area. Sport anglers in 

 southwestern Louisiana spend 479,000 user-days per year in recreational fishing (U.S. Army Corps 

 of Engineers, unpubl., cited by Gosselink et al. 1979). Heffeman et al. (1977) in a study of the 

 finfish harvest of Galveston Bay, TX, estimated that recreational rod and reel fishermen spent 

 909,000 user-days/year in that area. The tremendous differences in user-days/year are a result of 

 the much larger area available in Galveston Bay than along the southwestern Louisiana coast and 

 the much greater human population density in the immediate vicinity of Galveston Bay. Visitors 

 to Rockefeller Refuge are limited by the number of fishing areas available unless they intend to 

 go offshore. If offshore activity is their only objective, other boat launches closer to their point 

 of origin are in most cases readily available. 



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