Research Need
My friends, family, and colleagues who live up and down the North Carolina coast have all commented in some way or another about the throngs of people on the coast this past spring, summer, and fall. This should not be surprising, considering that people abandoned most far-flung summer travel plans in 2020 because of the global COVID-19 pandemic. People are simply spending their leisure time closer to home.
In theory, that could mean more beachgoers and perhaps more fishers. If you are an angler, maybe you witnessed more people than typical on the water in 2020.
But why should we care what happens with the Coastal Recreational Fishing License (CRFL)? Well, CRFL sales improve the ability of our state natural resource agencies to manage our fisheries, and some of the fees go towards projects and new initiatives to support fishing. Fewer CRFL sales translate into less revenue.
To determine if anglers fished more often than usual, we can look at license sales, as the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission (NCWRC) tabulates them monthly. The NCWRC is the agency responsible for the administration of all freshwater and saltwater fishing licenses in the state.
What information is available?
I looked at publicly available data from NCWRC, examining the 10 categories of annual and 10-day fishing licenses that involved a saltwater component (CRFL). I excluded all types of lifetime CRFL licenses, because the factors impacting these purchases are more nuanced.
For each license category, I computed the sales for the period January 1 to August 31 for 2017, 2018, and 2019 and compared that to the same period for 2020. This revealed whether the 2020 sales data was lower or higher than the previous 3-year average, and if so, in which categories.
What do the numbers tell us?
From January through August of 2020, people purchased 319,661 CRFL, which is a 2% increase compared to the 2017-2019 average (314,024) during the same months. There is typically some fluctuation in sales from year to year, and the chart above shows that the 2020 totals are within the range of the previous threeyear average.
But since we can all agree that 2020 was not a typical year, I wanted to dive a little deeper (below) to look at the changes in sales by license type to see if some licenses performed better than others.
Immediately, we see some departures from normal numbers, which COVID-19 may have caused, at least in part.
First, sales of non-resident 10-day licenses (the largest CRFL category by number) were down 8%, which is likely reflective of the reduced travel during the pandemic. Out-of-state anglers come from far and wide to cast a line in N.C.
However, Annual Resident CRFLs were also down. Perhaps some residents planning on just saltwater fishing instead opted for an Annual Resident Unified Inland/CRFL (+98%), which allows fishing in BOTH fresh and saltwater.
We also know that COVID-19 adversely impacted seniors in 2020, and it seems logical that COVID-19 also may be limiting seniors’ ability to get out and fish. Of all CRFL types, sales of the Annual Senior CRFL (-43%) and Annual Unified Senior Sportsman CRFL (-65%) declined the most. Incidentally, these two CRFLs had the lowest sales volumes of any licenses that allow saltwater fishing.
Last, and perhaps most importantly, the number of Annual Subsistence Waiver CRFLs declined greatly (-39%). The Department of Social Services issues this license upon request to any individual who receives benefits from Medicaid, Food Stamps, or Work First Family Assistance. If COVID-19 was partly responsible for this decline, then it could be due to less demand overall (fewer people wanting or able to fish) or due to decreased access to the waiver-granting agency during the pandemic. Either way, this decline is troubling.
What about actual fishing effort?
It’s too early to tell whether CRFL sales reflect actual observed changes in fishing effort and catch. Those estimates are gathered in waves of data collection throughout the year and take months to process and interpret. The North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries will be able to tell if fishing effort actually increased or decreased in 2020 compared to previous years sometime by the spring or summer of this year.
Anything else?
According to staff at the NCWRC, pleasure boat registrations were on pace to achieve the highest annual total in 5 years. I know that I saw a lot of boats on the water near me in 2020.
by Scott Baker
