Figure 1
Survey locations around the Tampa Bay area, grouped by zone (credit: Google Maps).
Table 1
Project Data.
| DATA SOURCE | N |
|---|---|
| In-person surveys | 300 |
| Field notes (person-daysa) | 153 |
| In-person semi-structured interviews | 86 |
[i] a As we often went into the field in pairs, there are sometimes more than one entry per day. We have counted field notes in terms of total individual daily entries.
Table 2
Participant Demographics.
| QUESTION | PROPORTION | N |
|---|---|---|
| How would you describe your ethnicity?a | 293 | |
| White including mixed | 52% | |
| Black including mixed | 15% | |
| Asian including mixed | 11% | |
| Latinx including mixed | 22% | |
| Mixed, no ethnicities specified | 3% | |
| Native American or Caribbean including mixed | 3% | |
| Gender b | 298 | |
| Female | 13% | |
| Male | 87% | |
| What income bracket does your household fit into? c | 146 | |
| $0–$25k | 13% | |
| $25–$50k | 30% | |
| $50–$75k | 23% | |
| $75–$100k | 15% | |
| Over $100k | 18% | |
| In the last year, how often did you not have the money to buy enough food?d | 295 | |
| Never | 83% | |
| Sometimes | 11% | |
| Often | 6% | |
| In the last year, did you ever skip meals because there wasn’t enough money to buy food? c | 294 | |
| Yes | 10% |
[i] a Totals over 100% because people specifying multiple ethnicities are counted in each category.
b After asking about self-identified gender and finding that fishermen often took offense, the research team began recording apparent gender, though recognizing this is problematic.
c N is lower for this question because it was added in the second year of surveying.
d Question adapted from the USDA’s U.S. Household Food Security Short-Form Survey Module (2012).
Table 3
Fishing Activity Characteristics.
| QUESTION | MEAN (MEDIAN) OR PROPORTION | N |
|---|---|---|
| How many hours per outing do you usually spend fishing? | 5.5 (5) | 293a |
| On a good day of fishing, how many fish do you keep? | 293b | |
| Including catch-and-release fishers | 3.5 (2) | |
| Amongst only those who keep fish | 5.6 (4) | |
| How many times did you go fishing in the past month? | 299 | |
| 1–5 | 53% | |
| 6–10 | 22% | |
| 11–15 | 9% | |
| 15+ | 16% | |
| With the fish you keep, what do you generally do with them? | 231c | |
| Cook & eat | 97% | |
| Share with friends and neighbors | 49% | |
| Trade or Sell | 2% | |
| In the last year, did fishing ever help prevent you or members of your household from going hungry? | 296 | |
| Yes | 11% | |
| How clean would you rate the water around here? | 292 | |
| (1 = very dirty, 5 = very clean) | 3.7 (4) | |
| How healthy do you feel it is to eat the fish here? | 290 | |
| (1 = very unhealthy, 5 = very healthy) | 4.2 (5) |
[i] a Excludes two outliers of 36 and 72 hours.
b Excludes one outlier of 100 fish. It is worth noting this question also elicited 21 qualitative responses, with participants answering with phrases such as “the limit” or “as many as I can” which could not be quantified.
c 23% of participants did not answer this question since they do not keep fish. Proportions add up to more than 100% because of overlapping activities (respondents could choose more than one).
Figure 2
Fishing at the end of the Ballast Point Pier.
Figure 3
Fishing under the Courtney Campbell Causeway Bridge.