million. The 1975 survey reports that the average fisherman spent $324.26 a 

 year to fish. Individual costs were $98.15 for bass fishing, $303.51 for off- 

 shore big game fishing, and $162.17 for boat fishing. 



The Fishery Conservation and Management Act of 1976 expressed Congres- 

 sional concern for sport fishing. In the act, the definition of optimum 

 sustained yield (OSY) includes sport fishing. At a minimum, the following 

 data for any one year are needed for managing sport fisheries according to OSY 

 guidelines: number of fishermen, average annual number of fishing days per 

 fishermen, and the average catch per trip. Other helpful data that might be 

 collected are: distance traveled to fish, average cost per trip, the number 

 of trips, socioeconomic information on fishermen and their communities, and 

 population statistics. The major problem concerning sport fishing in the 

 Southeastern United States is the serious lack of data on catch and fishing 

 effort. 



The rise in total real expenditures and the number of days fished annual- 

 ly in recent decades probably is due primarily to the increased number of 

 fishermen (Bell 1978), which may have caused a decrease in catch per unit of 

 effort. According to Bell (1979), over $851 million in gross expenditures 

 were spent by residents and tourists in 1975 for saltwater sport fishing in 

 Florida (Table 4), which is about 15% of all taxable sales on recreation in 

 the State. 



The saltwater sport fishery of Florida in 1976 supported about 44 million 

 fishing days annually (Table 4) at a cost of about $9.00 per fisherman. About 

 one-third of the fishermen were tourists (Table 4), a statistic used for esti- 

 mating that there were 14.6 million tourist days of fishing in 1975. The 

 expenditure per man day of fishing probably is the same for tourists and 

 residents alike. The average daily expenditure for tourists was $31.47 in 

 1975 (Bell 1979). Using Florida Department of Commerce information on tourist 

 expenditures. Bell estimated that the saltwater sport fishery for tourists in 

 1975 created $111 million in wages and salaries in the export sector and added 

 $464 million to the nonbase sector. Based on National Marine Fisheries 

 Service (NMFS) estimates of retail jobs associated with sport fishing, salt- 

 water fishing generated 34,700 jobs. Furthermore, the multiplier effect of 

 the $464 million adds another 83,739 jobs. In all, the saltwater sport 

 fishery supported over 118,000 jobs in Florida. The average saltwater sport 

 fishermen spent about $19.75 a day. When multiplied by the number of tourist 

 and resident fishing days, and applying a capitalization rate, the total value 

 of saltwater sport fishing in Florida in 1975 was $18.7 billion. 



Bell (1978) also made the same calculation for freshwater sport fishing 

 (Table 5). He stated that: 



$526 million, in gross expenditures, is spent annually by 

 residents and tourists on freshwater sports fishing or about 

 9% of all taxable sales on recreation in the state. 



Gross expenditures per day for freshwater fishing was $4.78 

 or 54% of daily expenditures on saltwater fishing. 



Tourist expenditures for freshwater fishing are estimated at 

 $278 million. 



171 



