989,000 sport fishermen from 419,000 households sought shellfish (includes 

 those who fished for both). In all there were 24.68 mill ion man days (trips) 

 of finfishing and 8.0 million days of shellfishing. The average sport fish- 

 erman fished about 12 days a year for finfish and 8 days for shellfish. 



The 1975 National Survey of Hunting, Fishing and Wildlife and Associated 

 Recreation included statistics for Florida. In 1975 about 1.7 million sport 

 fishermen fished in marine and brackish waters and 693,000 fished in rivers 

 and freshwater lakes. In Florida in 1975, fishing expenditures were about 

 $770.8 mill ion. Major expenditures were as follows: $166.0 million for fish- 

 ing supplies and equipment, $171.7 million for food, drink, and refreshments, 

 $219.1 million for transportation, and $86.6 million for bait. Largemouth 

 bass and other basses were the favored freshwater fish. The 1975 fishing cost 

 for the 426,000 bass fishermen was about $41.8 mill ion. An estimated 377,000 

 big game fishermen in boats offshore (many chartered) spent $114.42 million, 

 whereas the 285,000 nearshore and estuarine fishermen in boats spent $46.22 

 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 sus- 

 tained 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 an- 

 nually 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 fishemian. About 

 one-third of the fishermen were tourists, a statistic used for estimating 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, saltwater fishing gen- 

 erated 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 job in Florida. The average saltwater sport fishennen spent about 



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