Sport angling a runaway leader in B.C.’s fishing and aquaculture sector

Jeff Welch (left) lead guide for Great River Fishing Adventures and Dean Werk, owner of Great River, hold a 1,000-pound Great White sturgeon caught in the Fraser River in a handout photo. Thirty anglers from a Kamloops accounting firm hooked the monster fish which measured 11 feet, eight inches with a massive five foot girth.

Sport angling a runaway leader in B.C.’s fishing and aquaculture sector 

Recreational fishery dominates revenue generation, employment figures in new study 

By Scott Simpson, Vancouver Sun/Calgary Herald, February 13, 2013 

British Columbia’s recreational fishery is worth as much to the provincial economy as commercial fishing, aquaculture and fish processing combined, according to a new report from BC Stats. 

The report, the first major economic review of the sector since 2007, estimates overall B.C. fisheries and aquaculture sector revenue at $2.2 billion for 2011 including $936 million contribution from recreational angling. 

That boils down to a $325 million contribution to gross domestic product from the recreational sub-sector — not including spending on angling gear, boats and other vehicles — compared to $340 million in combined GDP from the commercial, aquaculture and fish processing sub-sectors including commercial boats and gear. 

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