Ministries want input on fishing

Is sport fishing a popular recreational activity in Canada these days?
How much economic value can be gained from the sport to each province and Canada as a whole?
The federal and provincial governments would like to know the answers to these and other questions about the sport as part of a nationwide survey.
Conducted every five years since 1975, the Survey of Recreational Fishing in Canada attempts to compile an assessment of recreational fishing in Canada.
Questionnaires will be mailed to 82,000 Canadian residents and anglers from other countries by provincial and territorial agencies and federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans in the coming weeks.
In Ontario alone, 8,000 questionnaires will be sent out along with another 8,000 to non-residents who fished in Ontario last year, said George Duckworth, a Ministry of Natural Resources fisheries framework co-ordinator from Peterborough.
The purpose of the survey is to obtain reliable, up-to-date information on the importance and popularity of recreational fishing in Canada. 
Recipients are being asked questions such as where they fish and how often, what fish they catch and retain, their opinions on specific management issues and the amount of money they spend in pursuit of their fishing activities.
The last survey, conducted in 2000, revealed how popular an activity angling is in Canada.
It found almost 3.6 million adult anglers had wet a line for a total of 48 million days. Of the fish caught, nearly two-thirds were released.
The success of catch-and-release programs is a testament to the importance of conservation to Canada’s anglers.
Overall, the angling population spent an estimated $6.7 billion in Canada in 2000.
In Ontario, Duckworth said, sport fishing contributed in a big way to the national figures.
A final report on the 2005 survey, with Canadawide results as well as those for each jurisdiction, will be published in 2007.
“I’m sure the new survey will show fishing continues to be popular,” Duckworth said.
More information on the previous surveys is available here