Catch and Release: The Effectiveness of an Educational Class for Anglers Caught with Fishing Citations

Formal regulatory structures, such as government-imposed size limits or bag limits, are standard tools used by managers to achieve fisheries management in most countries. Regulations are most effective if followed by the angling community, which is predicated upon anglers understanding and accepting the regulations. To enhance compliance with fishing regulations and improve the management of fisheries resources, Biscayne and Everglades National Parks established a Fisheries Education Class program that was open to the community and available to anglers cited with a fishing violation in exchange for a reduced or waived fine. Here, we describe this program and quantitatively evaluate its effectiveness by measuring and comparing the self-efficacy and attitudes of participants before and after the class using generalized linear models with repeated measures. Results showed that the Fisheries Education Class was effective at improving the self-efficacy of anglers toward understanding and applying the regulations and improved the attitudes of the participants toward fishing regulations.