Catch uncertainty and recreational fishing attraction: Propositions and future research directions

Abstract Why do people fish for recreation? Social science literature suggests that both catch (e.g., number or sizes of fish) and non‐catch dimensions (e.g., nature experience, temporary escape) play a role. After reviewing the literature from environmental psychology, neuroscience, anthropology, recreational fisher motivation research as well as popular fishing books, I find that the opposite of catching fish, more specifically the uncertainty of the catch, maybe another, perhaps fundamental force that explains the attraction of the activity to millions of people. There appears to be strong utility in the gaming nature of the activity. This quality may contribute to explain various patterns that are well known, e.g., the overinvestment of time and money by recreational fishers that drastically exceed the market value of fish, the lack of self‐regulation of a local recreational fishery in terms of effort being spent also on low stock sizes, the disutility associated with providing certain catch probability information, diminishing marginal utility return for increasing catch rates, management regulations that make fishing harder than necessary, suboptimal satisfaction despite rising catch rates, and finally the dominance of men among populations of recreational fishers. I present a serious of testable propositions and call for a novel research focus that seeks to better understand what makes catch ambiguity attractive psychologically and emotionally.