The Angler in the Environment: Social, Economic, Biological, and Ethical Dimensions

<i>Abstract</i> .—Recreational fishing is popular worldwide. However, the potential negative impacts of this leisure activity can influence the sustainability of targeted fish stocks. Although management strategies are frequently used to control the actions of anglers, participants themselves must ultimately be confident that changes in their behavior will lead to the conservation of recreational fish stocks before regulations are followed and best practices adopted. Directly involving recreational anglers in research used to quantify the value of best practices, such as in the case of catch and release, can help reinforce the notion among anglers that best practice behaviors facilitate conservation and sustainable exploitation. Using the framework of citizen science and the principles of experiential education (immersion, involvement, ownership, and legacy), we present a case study whereby recreational anglers were directly involved in research that tested how attributes of catch-and-release fishing for bonefish <i>Albula </i> spp. can influence the postrelease survival. By accompanying anglers to the shallow flats and actively involving them in hands-on research aimed at addressing relevant behaviors in the context of catch and release, such programs can promote an increased awareness and sense of personal ownership over the research question and the conservation benefits that it intends to facilitate. With data generated through direct involvement, the participation of recreational anglers in our research culminated in the development of a best practices brochure about catch and release for bonefish. It is our experience that research programs involving recreational anglers need to be well conceived and structured so as to adequately balance the quality of the experience for the participants with the need for generating quality data. Welldesigned “research angler” programs as a form of tourism or even ecotourism could help scientists not only to enhance their ability to conduct fisheries research, but also to broaden the impacts of their research program and the speed at which best practices are adopted.

The Angler in the Environment: Social, Economic, Biological, and Ethical Dimensions

<i>Abstract</i>.—Ever since fishing was called recreational fishing, a cruelty charge has hovered around somewhere in the background. In recent times, however, it has made it to the fore substantiated by anthropomorphic reasoning and fuelled by high-visibility papers claiming that fish can feel pain and suffer. Because some segments of the public perceive the infliction of these mental states to fish as abhorrent and not outweighing the costs imposed on the individual fish by appropriate benefits to the human, recreational fishing is coming under attack on moral grounds. Other challenges have also emerged that do not center on the issue of whether fish are sentient or not. In this paper, we describe five of the most prevalent moral challenges to recreational angling, two of which—animal welfare and wilderness-centered perspectives—can offer a constructive outlook by calling upon improved treatment of individual fish (animal welfare) and generally more sustainable management (wilderness perspective). In contrast, if one subscribes to animal liberation or animal rights philosophies, the outlook for recreational fishing is generally negative: it has to stop. A final challenge is associated with the motivations of anglers. The moral argument there is that the activity is carried out largely for angler pleasure rather than as a means of securing survival. The outlook of this ethical challenge sometimes leans towards only accepting one form of recreational fishing: catching, killing, and eating. Voluntary catch-and-release fishing and practices such as tournament fishing with a strict total catch-and-release policy would then not be ethically permissible. In this paper, we highlight the origin and background of each of the five ethical challenges and explain their implications for recreational fishing.

The Angler in the Environment: Social, Economic, Biological, and Ethical Dimensions

<i>Abstract</i> .—Summer flounder <i>Paralichthys dentatus </i> supports an important recreational fishery along the northeastern coast of the United States. Successful rebuilding of the stock and the need to constrain landings within total-allowable-landing targets has resulted in declining bag limits, increasing size limits, higher discarding, and a reduction in satisfaction derived from recreational fishing trips. A series of fishing trips were observed in which alternative regulatory scenarios were tested to identify approaches to better optimize bag limits and size limits. The alternatives included a slot limit in which some smaller fish were allowed to be landed, a reduced minimum size, and a cumulative size, in which the bag limit and size limit were conflated such that fish take was controlled by the cumulative size of the landed fish. Comparisons were made to fishing trips conducted under 2006 regulations that produced higher injury frequencies than other regulatory scenarios due to discarding of larger fish that tended to be gut-hooked. Two alternatives performed significantly better in terms of reducing the potential for discard mortality among discarded fish, the slot-limit and the cumulative-size scenarios. An intermediate performance of the reduced-minimum-size scenario was due to an increased proportion of dead fish, but this association was unexplained. Fish uninjured save for minor hook damage were common on all vessels and in all fishing approaches. Injury frequency was, in fact, remarkably low, less than half of the assumed discard mortality rate in presentday stock assessments. The study supports the use of size-specific mortality rates for fish discarded recreationally. The study offers no support for the efficacy of the 2006 regulatory system in controlling discard mortality rate. Any of the alternative plans is an improvement, but the slot-limit and cumulative-size scenarios are deserving of the most scrutiny.

The Angler in the Environment: Social, Economic, Biological, and Ethical Dimensions

<i>Abstract</i> .—The World Recreational Fishing Conference represents the only scientific meeting that is truly global, attracting scientists, managers, industry representatives, policy makers, and other stakeholders to discuss pertinent issues in recreational fisheries. The Fifth World Recreational Fishing Conference was held in Dania Beach, Florida, on November 10–12, 2008. This book represents the peer-reviewed proceedings of the landmark conference. Chapters in this book cover a range of issues such as governance, social and biological management tools and issues, ethics, and novel survey methods to advance the science and management of recreational fisheries.

The Angler in the Environment: Social, Economic, Biological, and Ethical Dimensions

<i>Abstract</i> .—Despite widespread recognition of the importance of including stakeholders in management decisions for fisheries, an integrated process for broadening stakeholder involvement in the management of marine fisheries in the United States is lacking. Many marine recreational fishery stakeholders feel frustrated by a perceived lack of inclusion in the management process. Here, we describe a collaborative, integrated process between scientists and stakeholders, called “FishSmart,” which complements current management by informing fishery managers of stakeholder preferences for alternative management strategies. Strategies were designed by the stakeholders to improve the status of the king mackerel <i>Scomberomorus cavalla </i> fishery off the southeastern coast of the United States, relative to their shared vision of an improved fishery. Over the course of four facilitated workshops, stakeholders explored and compared the consequences of voluntary and regulatory fishery management strategies, using a decision analysis model developed by project scientists. Goals identified by stakeholders included maintaining high and stable catches and retaining year-round access and the ability to catch large fish. Options modeled included both voluntary changes in fishing practices and mandatory regulations. Stakeholders agreed that status quo management options were not sufficient to ensure sustainability in the Atlantic king mackerel fishery and developed a suite of 18 consensus recommendations of how to best meet their shared vision of a quality fishery.

The Angler in the Environment: Social, Economic, Biological, and Ethical Dimensions

<i>Abstract</i>.—In Queensland, Australia, approximately 700,000 recreational anglers catch almost 50 million fish, crabs, and prawns each year. Recreational fishing information has been regularly collected since 1996 through a combined telephone survey and volunteer diary program. Separately, biological data for key species has been collected since 1999.

The Angler in the Environment: Social, Economic, Biological, and Ethical Dimensions

<i>Abstract</i>.—This paper investigates the obstacles in securing New Zealand charter operators’ support for the introduction of a marine recreational charter vessel registration and reporting scheme to improve the management of shared fisheries. Currently, charter operators are reluctant to be involved because they do not trust the Ministry of Fisheries’ (MFish) use of the information generated by the registration and reporting scheme. Charter operators believe the registration and reporting scheme is based on the premise that fisheries management does not account well for their interests. However, the information generated through registration and reporting is essential to improving the relationship between MFish and charter operators, so that they can be better represented in fisheries management processes that recognize and enhance their interests. I conclude that appealing to charter operators’ economic interests is the best way to explain the benefits of the registration and reporting requirements. Using this strategy has the potential to improve charter operators’ trust in MFish, secure their support for the registration and reporting scheme, and contribute to the improved management of New Zealand’s shared fisheries.

The Angler in the Environment: Social, Economic, Biological, and Ethical Dimensions

<i>Abstract</i>.—In this article, we examine the different values and cultural representations of catch-and-release fishing and of human–animal relations in general. The focus is on various images of good and ethical recreational fishing practices, particularly in the context of catch-and-release fishing in Finland. The material consists of scientific articles and newspaper articles and policy documents related to fishing and human–wildlife relations. Despite the fact that modern societies show increasing interest in animal rights—often challenging traditional practices like hunting—animal welfare and nature protection groups seem to support the traditional “northern subsistence culture” in the Finnish case of recreational fishing. The context of traditional human–nature relations overrides modern human–animal relations. However, the complexity and diversity of recreational fisher groups and public debate are increasing. This calls for clarification of the ambiguous terminology of catch-and-release fishing as well as for new policy institutions where different views and values could be governed.

The Angler in the Environment: Social, Economic, Biological, and Ethical Dimensions

<i>Abstract</i> .—In recreational fisheries, catch and release is widespread and practiced under the assumption that released fish survive the capture event unharmed. To improve understanding about the lethal impacts of catch-and-release recreational angling, a quantitative meta-analysis of the literature on hooking mortality and its determinants was conducted focusing on freshwater fishes. Studies were initially selected based on the occurrence of the study species in European recreational fisheries. Because original studies from European freshwater or diadromous fish species were rare, studies from the same genus as native European species were also included in the meta-analysis. Mean hooking mortality ± SE across all species was 15.9 ± 1.3% (<i>n </i> = 252 hooking mortality estimates in <i>n </i> = 107 studies), with a median of 7.8% and a range from 0% to 88.5%. The distribution of hooking mortality estimates was highly skewed towards low values; about 60% of all hooking mortality values were below 10%. Average hooking mortality varied between fish families and was highest for Percidae (mean ± SE, 19.9 ± 5.3%) followed by Salmonidae (15.9 ± 1.4%), Esocidae (14.9 ± 7.0%), and Cyprinidae (5.7 ± 1.6%). Hooking mortality was positively related to water temperature and was significantly higher for natural baits and barbed hooks than for artificial baits and barbless hooks. Size of fish and type of hook were unrelated to the level of hooking mortality. To minimize hooking mortality on European fish species, we recommend the use of barbless hooks and artificial baits and we suggest avoiding catch and release of fish during high water temperatures. Further research on the impacts of catch and release on a number of European fishes is recommended because of the limited coverage of species-specific information in the contemporary literature.

The Angler in the Environment: Social, Economic, Biological, and Ethical Dimensions

<i>Abstract</i> .—There is a need to better understand the perspectives of various recreational fishing stakeholder groups regarding key issues related to fisheries sustainability. To provide a first snapshot and to inform future human dimension studies in this area, we distributed a Web-based open-access survey to fisheries researchers, fisheries managers, and anglers in North America. Attitudes of these respondents towards issues such as overharvest, impacts of catch and release, recreational fisheries management, and research priorities for the future were assessed. We found similar opinions and perspectives by the responding recreational anglers, managers, and researchers on a number of issues, such as the perceived impact of commercial fishing contributing to fish stock declines, the perceived importance of using and promoting gear that minimizes stress and injury to individual fish when fish are to be released, and the belief that conflicts among stakeholders is growing as is the global anti-fishing movement based on animal rights thinking. Differences among responding groups included that researchers tended to be more concerned than anglers and managers with the potential of recreational angling contributing to fish stock declines. Responding anglers were also less content with their involvement in the fisheries management process than were responding managers and researchers, and these anglers also indicated a greater desire for more human dimensions research on understanding angler attitudes and behavior than was evident for responding managers and researchers. This preliminary survey revealed some variation in attitudes among recreational fisheries stakeholders. However, due to lack of random sampling, the study results cannot be extrapolated to the population level. We nevertheless conclude that improved communication and better understanding about the different perspectives among fisheries researchers, managers, and anglers and intrasectorally among different angling groups are needed, particularly when addressing contentious issues of relevance for the entire recreational fishing sector.