Political Ecology for Understanding Recreational Fishers and Fisheries

Political ecology, and its core concern with how power shapes social– ecological relationships, has much to offer recreational fisheries analyses. Political ecologists bring critical questions about how different fishers may have uneven access to resources, how particular policy narratives affect fishers, and how fishing communities are entangled with broader social, economic, and ecological processes. We explain the origins, key theoretical tenets, and methodological approaches of the field, describe the ways political ecology theory has been applied to understand recreational fisheries, and explore ways it could be applied in future research and management. With its focus on making visible the often hidden, power-laden relationships that shape the character of recreational fishing in specific places, political ecology investigations reveal the ways recreational fishing grapples with its own role in shifting ecologies and is also interwoven with resource-use conflicts and political movements. We bring our diverse perspectives as academics and fisheries managers to illustrate key moments when the central themes of political ecology have helped us to better understand recreational fisheries dynamics. Finally, we offer a set of best practices for integrating a political ecology perspective into recreational fishing studies.