How Biased is Your ‘Catch’? Adjusting for Avidity-Related Non-Response Bias in Recreational Surveys

Declining response rates coupled with increasing non-response bias to recreational surveys pose challenges for accurately estimating participation and associated economic metrics. This study investigates the presence of “avidity bias,” defined as the disproportionate representation of anglers with higher fishing participation frequencies and examines its implications for fisheries management surveys. Using data from two recent studies of recreational anglers conducted in Ohio (2021 and 2024), and other historical datasets this study identify significant overrepresentation of avid anglers in surveys. This study demonstrates a post-hoc weighting technique based upon years of fishing license-purchase history, as an indicator, to account for the influence of avidity bias. Results indicate that unadjusted estimates overrepresented fishing effort by roughly 31%, while the post-hoc weighting substantially reduced the measured overrepresentation. These findings highlight the importance of addressing avidity bias in recreational survey design to improve the reliability of estimates.