Biological and socio‐economic aspects of recreational fisheries and their implications for the management of coastal urban areas of south‐eastern Brazil

Abstract

A total of 442 anglers in a coastal region of SE Brazil were interviewed to obtain information about recreational fishing. The anglers were mature individuals (mean age ≈43 years) with a high level of education. However, many did not have a fishing licence. Target fishes belonged to 47 species. Mean catch (Catch per unit effort ‐ CPUE) was 4.2 fish−1 day−1 or 488 g−1 angler−1 day−1. Total estimated catch in the study period was equivalent to 2% of commercial landings, indicating that recreational fishing has little impact on fish stocks. The anglers complained that fishing conditions had worsened because of environmental degradation. Catch‐and‐release was classified as a ‘good’ attitude despite reports of practices that caused suffering to fish. However, when asked about prohibition of catch‐and‐release, which is enforced in some countries, the anglers said they would not accept such a prohibition if proposed by Brazilian fishing authorities. As a general rule, issues related to animal welfare and animal rights are not discussed widely by society or by fishing authorities in Brazil. Suggestions for integrated management of coastal resources and for monitoring recreational fishing are presented.

Evaluation of observer‐ and industry‐based catch data in a recreational charter fishery

“…Recreational fisheries provide important social and economic contributions to many communities (Aas, Arlinghaus, Ditton, Policansky & Schramm, ; Barrella et al., ; Pitcher & Hollingworth, ; Solstrand, ), and there is growing acknowledgement that they are the major harvest sector of many organisms in freshwater and marine environments across various regions throughout the world (Arlinghaus et al., ; Coleman, Figueira, Ueland & Crowder, ; Cooke & Cowx, ; Ihde, Wilberg, Loewensteiner, Secor & Miller, ; McPhee, Leadbitter & Skilleter, ). Consequently, there is now greater recognition of the real and potential impacts of recreational fishing on species and ecosystems (Font & Lloret, ; Ihde et al., ; Lewin, Arlinghaus & Mehner, ; McPhee et al., ; Post et al., ; Sheaves et al., ).…”

Recommendations for the future of recreational fisheries to prepare the social‐ecological system to cope with change

“…These methods are now routinely being applied in several countries that can be classified as "economies in transition" (e.g. Argentina: Baig _ tn et al 2006;Brazil: Freire et al 2012, 2016Barrella et al 2016), providing a first step to characterising the size and structure of the recreational fishing sector, the number of people engaged in recreational fishing, and its social and economic value in a given country or region. As more and more basic descriptive knowledge about the economic and social importance of recreational fishing accumulates it will likely lead to a greater appreciation of the sector by policy makers and fisheries managers in relation to science and management of capture fisheries in general (e.g.…”

Urban Recreational Fisheries in the Australian Coastal Zone: The Sustainability Challenge

“…Participation numbers and participation rates in each of the major Australian coastal capital cities are shown in Table 1. The participation numbers represent where an angler resides rather than where he actually fishes, but it is demonstrated empirically that most recreational fishers in urban environments predominantly fish close to their residence [18]. …”

“…Much of the global focus on understanding urban fisheries and urban fisheries management has been in freshwater areas ( [17] for example), although some work has been focused in coastal areas [13,18,19]. Overall, there has been little consideration of the specific management needs for urban recreational fisheries in Australia.…”