Behavioural variation in Eurasian perch populations with respect to relative catchability

Abstract

Animal personalities, i.e. consistent individual differences in behaviour, are currently of high interest among behavioural and evolutionary biologists. The topic has received increasing attention also in fisheries science because selective harvesting of certain behavioural types might impose fishing-induced selection on personality. Here, we ice-fished wild Eurasian perch (Perca fluviatilis) from three native populations and investigated whether differences in relative catchability would explain behavioural differences observed in experimental conditions. We inferred relative catchability differences indirectly by fishing each location first with generally inefficient artificial bait and then by more efficient natural bait. The captured, individually tagged fish were tested in groups for their exploration tendency, activity and boldness under authentic predation risk in semi-natural stream channels. Fish that were easily captured first with artificial bait expressed fast exploration and acute activity, whereas the fish captured with natural bait showed less active and explorative behaviour. Differences in relative catchability did not explain variation in boldness or body size. In conclusion, we found that (1) Eurasian perch differing in relative catchability differ in certain behavioural traits, (2) fast explorers are more common among fish that get easily caught compared to fish that are more difficult to catch, (3) relative catchability explains more behavioural variation in a novel environment than in a familiar one and (4) selectivity of recreational angling on fish behaviour may depend on applied angling method and the effort spent on each location.

Toward a mechanistic understanding of vulnerability to hook‐and‐line fishing: Boldness as the basic target of angling‐induced selection

“…Although strong selection pressures acting on behavioral traits in recreational fisheries are supported by theoretical arguments and simulation models (Alós et al., ; Andersen, Marty, & Arlinghaus, ; Enberg et al., ; Uusi‐Heikkilä et al., ), few experimental studies on this topic exist so far. The majority of these support the assumption of positive correlations between exploration, habitat choice behavior, activity, aggression, boldness and intensity of parental care, and vulnerability to hook‐and‐line fisheries (Alós, Palmer, Rosselló, & Arlinghaus, ; Alós, Palmer, Trias, Díaz‐Gil, & Arlinghaus, ; Härkönen, Hyvärinen, Niemelä, & Vainikka, ; Härkönen, Hyvärinen, Paappanen, & Vainikka, ; Klefoth, Skov, Krause, & Arlinghaus, ; Monk & Arlinghaus, ; Sutter et al., ; Wilson, Brownscombe, Sullivan, Jain‐Schlaepfer, & Cooke, ). Following the timidity syndrome hypothesis recently put forward by Arlinghaus et al.…”

Passive gear‐induced timidity syndrome in wild fish populations and its potential ecological and managerial implications

“…Indeed, there are a few examples that high swimming activity (Biro and Post ) and particularly exploration (Härkönen et al . , ) increase the probability of capture in some passive fisheries. However, several recent studies failed to find a clear signature of fishing‐induced selection on swimming activity, suggesting instead that other behaviours (e.g.…”

Harvesting as a potential selective pressure on behavioural traits

“…This is particularly true for fish, because it is rarely possible to make observations on fish that are not captured (Härkönen et al . , but see Olsen et al . ), and longitudinal behavioural time‐series data from wild populations hardly exist (Jørgensen & Holt ).…”