Recreational Fisheries in Türkiye: Socio‐Economic Profiles, Technological Trends and Governance Challenges

Recreational fisheries in Türkiye constitute an understudied socio‐economic sector spanning marine and freshwater ecosystems across the Mediterranean and Black Sea basins, yet robust national participation estimates remain constrained by the absence of a comprehensive registry or probability‐based sampling frame. Management is further limited by scarce geographically broad evidence on active recreational anglers' profiles, practices and compliance‐related experiences. We conducted a cross‐sectional online survey of 1530 active recreational anglers recruited through digital networks from 71 provinces to characterise socio‐demographic attributes, fishing behaviour and governance‐related outcomes. Unlike the predominantly marine emphasis of much regional research, 62.0% of respondents identified freshwater as their primary fishing environment. Respondents were overwhelmingly male (98.1%), and bait/lure preferences indicated substantial uptake of active, lure‐based approaches. A governance disconnect was evident: although 55.6% of respondents reported at least one inspection, only 6.1% of inspected anglers (52 of 851) reported receiving an administrative fine. Perceived limitations in enforcement were the most frequently cited constraint, while spatial conflicts with commercial fisheries also emerged as a prominent governance concern. In multivariable logistic regression, inspection exposure varied strongly by fishing context: licence‐holding anglers had higher inspection odds than anglers without a licence (aOR = 1.86), boat‐based anglers had higher inspection odds than shore‐based anglers (aOR = 2.75), and inspections were less likely in marine than in freshwater environments (aOR = 0.27). Bias‐corrected Cramér's V indicated a negligible association between administrative fine receipt and the measured socio‐demographic or practice‐based variables. By contrast, recreational anglers affiliated with fishing associations were significantly more likely to hold a voluntary licence (χ 2 = 94.9, p < 0.001). For the active angling community captured by this survey, these findings support a transition from predominantly enforcement‐centred management towards co‐management facilitated through angler associations, strengthened inspection quality and conflict‐sensitive monitoring in marine coastal zones.