Robert M. Muth

Illegal harvest of renewable natural resources in North America: Toward a typology of the motivations for poaching

In many areas of North America, illegal hunting, fishing, and gathering of renewable natural resources are occurring with alarming and increasing frequency. Resource professionals, law enforcement officers, and the general public are becoming increasingly concerned about the poaching problem, as localized populations of wildlife, fish, and plant species are threatened with extirpation, and as legitimate users—consumptive and nonconsumptive alike—are deprived of resource utilization opportunities. An important step toward developing more effective environmental education, public information, and law enforcement programs to combat poaching is to develop an understanding of why people poach. Based on a literature review and content analysis, we summarized and classified the motivations for poaching that appeared in the literature into the following typology: (1) commercial gain, (2) household consumption, (3) recreational satisfactions, (4) trophy poaching, (5) thrill killing, (6) protection of self and prop...

Experiences with Beaver Damage and Attitudes of Massachusetts Residents Toward Beaver

Abstract As stakeholder attitudes, values, and management preferences become increasingly diverse, managing human–wildlife conflicts will become more difficult. This challenge is especially evident in Massachusetts, USA, where furbearer management has been constrained by passage of a ballot initiative that outlawed use of foothold and body-gripping traps except in specific instances involving threats to human health or safety. Without regulated trapping, beaver (Castor canadensis) populations and damage attributed to them have increased. To develop an understanding of public attitudes regarding beaver-related management issues, we surveyed a random sample of Massachusetts residents in the spring of 2002 within 3 geographic regions where beaver are prevalent, as well as all individuals who submitted a beaver-related complaint to the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife in 1999 and 2000. We found that respondents held generally positive attitudes toward beaver. Respondents who experienced beaver-related problems tended to have less favorable or negative attitudes toward beaver than people who did not experience beaver damage. Attitudes toward beaver became increasingly negative as the severity of damage experienced by people increased. We believe continued public support for wildlife conservation will require implementation of strategies that are responsive to changing attitudes of an urban population and within social-acceptance and biological carrying capacities.

Seasonal use of a New England estuary by foraging contingents of migratory striped bass

Abstract Using acoustic telemetry on migratory striped bass Morone saxatilis in Plum Island Estuary (PIE), Massachusetts, we found that striped bass (335–634 mm total length) tagged in the spring and summer of 2005 (n = 14) and 2006 (n = 46) stayed in the estuary for an average of 66.0 d in 2005 and 72.2 d in 2006. Striped bass spent the most time in two specific reaches: middle Plum Island Sound and lower Rowley River. In both years, three different use-groups of striped bass were observed in PIE. Short-term visitors (n = 24) stayed in the estuary only briefly (range = 5–20 d). Two groups of seasonal residents stayed for more than 30 d, either in the Rowley River (n = 14) or in Plum Island Sound (n = 22). Within PIE, the two seasonal-resident use-groups may be foraging contingents that learn how to feed efficiently in specific parts of the estuary. These distinct within-estuary use patterns could have different implications for striped bass condition and prey impact.

Evaluation of a Gastric Radio Tag Insertion Technique for Anadromous River Herring

Abstract Anadromous river herring (alewives Alosa pseudoharengus and blueback herring A. aestivalis), which constitute a historically and ecologically important component of coastal rivers, have declined precipitously throughout the Atlantic seaboard. Suggested causes of river herring decline include commercial fishing and predation by striped bass Morone saxatilis. Although the causes of this recent trend are poorly understood, river herring are especially vulnerable to adverse impacts during their spring spawning migration. Radiotelemetry is an especially useful method for addressing potential problems encountered during the movement of these fish from the ocean to freshwater. In spite of frequent calls for evaluation of telemetry methods, controlled tests of posttagging effects are rare for alosids and virtually nonexistent for anadromous river herring. We developed a protocol for gastric tagging of anadromous river herring, and we used hatchery and field studies to evaluate behavior, tag placement, st...

A Biosocial Approach for Analyzing Environmental Conflicts: A Case Study of Horseshoe Crab Allocation

Abstract Ambiguous legislation, insufficient science, jurisdictional disputes, and conflicting values of stakeholders have contributed to the increasing frequency of natural resource conflicts. The allocation of horseshoe crabs in Delaware Bay and Cape Cod Bay can serve as a model system for understanding resource conflicts, because relationships among biophysical and human systems in this example typify many environmental controversies. Herein, we use an interaction web to build a conceptual framework for identifying potential conflicts. Specifically, we identify four subconflicts involving horseshoe crabs, human shellfishers, commercial fishers, the biomedical industry, birdwatchers, and environmental interest groups. Stakeholders hold different attitudes concerning the horseshoe crab and thus advocate competing policy preferences in the political process. An important step in understanding environmental conflicts is to clarify differences in social meanings, attitudes, and values. The integrated approach described here, by depicting and graphically displaying biosocial relationships, can provide a generalized approach for understanding a broad range of environmental conflicts.

Management Issues and Their Relative Priority within State Fisheries Agencies

Abstract For researchers and managers to work together for greatest mutual benefit, researchers must understand what issues fisheries managers consider most important. To assess management priorities, we conducted a mail survey asking U.S. state fisheries agencies to identify the priority, based on personnel time, they place on 12 fisheries management issues. Based on an 88% response rate, we determined relative emphases across (1) management issues, (2) geographic regions, and (3) freshwater or marine orientations. Issues directly linked to sport and commercial fishers, i.e., stocking, harvest regulations, fishing pressure, and exploring recruitment, were of paramount importance in all agency time budgets. The issue that included conflict, policy, and human dimensions concerns also was identified as “high priority.” Six other issues—habitat restoration, hydropower licensing, instream flow, contaminants, introduced species, and nongame species—were of “moderate priority” nationwide. Approximately 50% of t...

Diversity in destinations, routes and timing of small adult and sub-adult striped bass Morone saxatilis on their southward autumn migration.

Almost three-quarters of the 46 young adult and sub-adult striped bass Morone saxatilis that were acoustically tagged in Plum Island Estuary, Massachusetts, U.S.A., in the summer of 2006 were detected in one or more southern coastal arrays during their autumn migration. On the basis of the trajectories along which these M. saxatilis moved from feeding to overwintering areas, three migratory groups emerged. After leaving Plum Island Estuary, about half of the fish were detected only in a mid-latitude array, Long Island Sound. The other half of the tagged fish were detected during autumn and winter in a more southern array, the Delaware Estuary. This latter group of fish may have used two routes. Some travelled to the Delaware Estuary through Long Island Sound while other fish may have taken a second, more direct, coastal route that did not include Long Island Sound. Consequently, a seemingly homogeneous group of fish tagged at the same time in the same non-natal feeding location exhibited a diversity of southward movement patterns that could affect population-level processes. These three groups that differed in overwintering location and migration route could be movement contingents with migratory connectivity.

Assessing Freshwater Habitat of Adult Anadromous Alewives Using Multiple Approaches

Abstract After centuries of disturbance, environmental professionals now recognize the need to restore coastal watersheds for native fish and protect the larger ecosystems on which fish and other aquatic biota depend. Anadromous fish species are an important component of coastal ecosystems that are often adversely affected by human activities. Restoring native anadromous fish species is a common focus of both fish and coastal watershed restoration. Yet restoration efforts have met with uneven success, often due to lack of knowledge about habitat availability and use. Using habitat surveys and radio tracking of adult anadromous alewives Alosa pseudoharengus during their spring spawning migration, we illustrate a method for quantifying habitat using multiple approaches and for relating mobile fish distribution to habitat. In the Ipswich River, Massachusetts, measuring habitat units and physical conditions at transects (width, depth, and velocity) provided an ecological basis for the interpretation of landscape patterns of fish distribution. Mapping habitat units allowed us to efficiently census habitat relevant to alewives for the entire 20.6 river kilometers of interest. Our transect data reinforced the results of the habitat unit survey and provided useful, high-resolution ecological data for restoration efforts. Tagged alewives spent little time in riffle-run habitats and substantial time in pools, although the locations of pool occupancy varied. The insights we provide here can be used to (1) identify preferred habitats into which anadromous fish can be reintroduced in order to maximize fish survival and reproduction and (2) pinpoint habitat types in urgent need of protection or restoration.

Stakeholder Norms Toward Beaver Management in Massachusetts

Abstract In Massachusetts, USA, both human and beaver (Castor canadensis) population levels are increasing, beaver damage complaints are escalating, and beaver management options are restricted by the 1996 Wildlife Protection Act. We looked at the publics norms toward beavers in Massachusetts. In 2002 we sent a mail-back questionnaire to a random sample of 5,563 residents in 3 geographic regions in Massachusetts and to residents who submitted a beaver complaint to Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife (MassWildlife) in 1999–2000 (47.3% overall response rate). Respondents supported some form of beaver management. As severity of beaver damage was perceived to increase, respondents were more willing to accept lethal management and control of beavers. These results emphasize the importance of how tolerance and acceptability of wildlife are influenced by the type of activity the animal is engaged in, the type of management action that is proposed, the positive or negative perception of a species in the eye of the public, and the publics preference for future population levels. A full understanding of these 4 points will help tailor management accordingly, because this knowledge can define a threshold of acceptance by the public for anticipated management actions. Restoration of full beaver management authority to the cognizant wildlife management agency would facilitate application of normative information to determine appropriate management response for minimizing conflicts between humans and beavers.

Trappers and trapping in advanced industrial society: Economic and socio cultural values of furbearer utilization in the northeastern united states

The purchase of trapping licenses in the northeastern United States has been declining for several years. Despite the decline in trapping activity, participation by a core group of trappers persists. To elucidate the economic and sociocultural values associated with present‐day trapping activities in the northeastern United States, several state and federal agencies and two academic institutions cooperated in a multistate study of trapping attitudes, values, motivations, and behavior. Results suggest that trappers continue to participate in trapping for a variety of sociocultural values and motivations, including the multiple satisfactions derived from involvement in an enduring recreational central life interest. Trapping to procure income and to provide in‐kind contributions to the household economy represent important motives and meanings to a smaller segment of the respondent population.