Report: Great Lakes recreational fishing worth billions to economy, but not as much as often cited

By Lester Graham, Michigan Public

The Great Lakes News Collaborative includes Bridge Michigan, Circle of Blue, Great Lakes Now at Detroit PBS, Michigan Public and The Narwhal who work together to bring audiences news and information about the impact of climate change, pollution, and aging infrastructure on the Great Lakes and drinking water. This independent journalism is supported by the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation. Find all the work HERE.

Recreational fishing in the Great Lakes is worth billions of dollars, but fewer billions than the amount cited for many years.

According to a recent study, recreational fishing in the Great Lakes is worth $5.1 billion. The Great Lakes Fishery Commission hired Southwick Associates to calculate the economic output. The area studied includes sportfishing in the eight Great Lakes states and Ontario.

Fishing boats in a marina along Lake Michigan. (Photo Credit: Lester Graham/Michigan Public)

The previous number, compiled by the same firm nearly two decades ago for the American Sportfishing Association was $7 billion. The Great Lakes Fishery Commission says the number is different primarily because of more robust methodology in the most recent study. The agency notes that $5 billion is still a huge amount of money.

Ever since the $7 billion economic benefit estimate was released, politicians, government agencies, and news outlets (including, on occasion, Michigan Public) have been using that amount without question, or very seldom questioning it even though the number was being used many years after the study was first released — although a reporter with the Great Lakes Echo questioned how the $7 billion figure was being used back in 2010.

Politicians have used that number to justify many government projects. It’s been misrepresented as the economic value of recreational fishing in Michigan waters alone. In one case, a state agency misrepresented it as the value of salmon fishing in Michigan alone.

In full disclosure, this reporter used that figure way beyond what likely should have been its “sell by date.”

No one seems sure about how long that old number has not been viable.

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Featured image: An angler fishing on Lake Michigan in the morning sun near Grand Haven.
(Photo Credit: Lester Graham/Michigan Public)