Governing the recreational dimension of global fisheries

Saving large fish through harvest slots outperforms the classical minimum‐length limit when the aim is to achieve multiple harvest and catch‐related fisheries objectives

“…the mixture of commercial and recreational fishers in a local fishery) biomass yield maximization may not be socially optimal (Johnston, Arlinghaus, & Dieckmann, ; Johnston, Beardmore, & Arlinghaus, ). In particular, recreational anglers often value other fisheries objectives more strongly than biomass yield, for example the catch of memorable large fish or high catch rates, from which only a portion is taking home for dinner (Arlinghaus et al, ). For harvest‐oriented recreational fisheries, Gwinn et al () argued that the number of fish harvested, rather than biomass yield, maybe a more suitable target as higher numbers of acceptably sized fish available for distribution among a large pool of anglers may produce higher overall utility than a maximized biomass yield where the landings are composed by an average larger, but overall fewer fish (Arlinghaus et al, ; Ayllón et al, ).…”

“…For harvest‐oriented recreational fisheries, Gwinn et al () argued that the number of fish harvested, rather than biomass yield, maybe a more suitable target as higher numbers of acceptably sized fish available for distribution among a large pool of anglers may produce higher overall utility than a maximized biomass yield where the landings are composed by an average larger, but overall fewer fish (Arlinghaus et al, ; Ayllón et al, ). Many local fisheries are co‐exploited by both commercial and recreational fisheries, for example most coastal fisheries (Arlinghaus et al, ). Here, both biomass‐oriented (tailored towards commercial fishers) and more catch‐ or size‐oriented fisheries objectives (tailored towards recreational fisheries) will be jointly important.…”

The Use of Recreational Fishers’ Ecological Knowledge to Assess the Conservation Status of Marine Ecosystems

“…Recreational fisheries are providing an increasing amount of data for researchers about their activity (e.g., Lloret et al, 2008;Giovos et al, 2018), but also about the ecosystems within they operate (e.g., Tiralongo et al, 2019), but the use of their FEK has been limited (see review by Hind, 2014). Given that there are many more recreational than commercial fishers (Hyder et al, 2018;Arlinghaus et al, 2019a), recreational fishers represent a relatively untapped source of long-term information on marine ecosystems (Brewin et al, 2017). Recreational FEK has been used to quantify variations in abundances and distribution of different fish stocks (e.g., Azzurro et al, 2011;Zukowski et al, 2011;Beaudreau and Levin, 2014;Sbragaglia et al, 2020).…”

Saving large fish through harvest slots outperforms the classical minimum-length limit when the aim is to achieve multiple harvest and catch-related fisheries objectives

“…Indeed, depending on local culture and stakeholder composition (e.g., the mixture of commercial and recreational fishers in a local fishery) biomass yield maximization may not be socially optimal (Johnston, Arlinghaus, & Dieckmann, 2010; Johnston, Beardmore, & Arlinghaus, 2015). In particular recreational anglers often value other fisheries objectives more strongly than biomass yield, e.g., the catch of memorable large fish or high catch rates, from which only a portion is taking home for dinner (Arlinghaus et al, 2019). For harvest-oriented recreational fisheries, Gwinn et al (2015) argued that the number of fish harvested, rather than biomass yield, maybe a more suitable target as higher numbers of acceptably sized fish available for distribution among a large pool of anglers may produce higher overall utility than a maximized biomass yield where the landings are composed by on average larger, but overall much fewer fish (Arlinghaus et al, 2010; Ayllón et al, 2019).…”

“…For harvest-oriented recreational fisheries, Gwinn et al (2015) argued that the number of fish harvested, rather than biomass yield, maybe a more suitable target as higher numbers of acceptably sized fish available for distribution among a large pool of anglers may produce higher overall utility than a maximized biomass yield where the landings are composed by on average larger, but overall much fewer fish (Arlinghaus et al, 2010; Ayllón et al, 2019). Many local fisheries are co-exploited by both commercial and recreational fisheries, e.g., most coastal fisheries (Arlinghaus et al, 2019). Here, both biomass oriented (tailored towards commercial fishers) and more catch or size oriented fisheries objectives (tailored towards recreational fisheries) will be jointly important.…”