From Shorelines to Social Media: Mixed-Methods Insights into Urban Fishing Practices, Policy Gaps and Culture in the Digital Age

Recreational and subsistence fishing are globally significant forms of marine resource use, contributing to food security, cultural identity, and social well-being across diverse coastal communities. Yet these non-commercial sectors are often overlooked in formal fisheries monitoring and governance. In California’s San Francisco Bay Area, non-commercial fishers represent a wide range of backgrounds and motivations, yet remain underrepresented in marine policy and management. Previous research has struggled to differentiate between different types of sport and subsistence fishing practices, especially among shore- and pier-based fishing communities. This study addresses these gaps by using a novel, mixed-methods approach (leveraging qualitative insight to contextualize and interpret scalable digital data), to analyze how different groups of non-commercial fishers are driven by nuanced motivations while exhibiting unique fishing practices and strategies. Drawing on semi-structured interviews and a database of ~40,000 social media posts (2014-2023), we document differences in behavior, knowledge, and meaning across regional recreational and subsistence fishing subcultures. Our results challenge the assumption that the activities of these non-commercial fishers are marginal or unstructured, revealing strategic species targeting, rich place-based knowledge, and complex adaptive responses to social and ecological change. In demonstrating the value of non-traditional data sources in documenting overlooked patterns of participation and adaptation, we advocate for marine resource management and policy approaches that recognize diverse user groups, foster inclusive participation, and support equitable coastal resource access.