Heartsblood: Hunting, Spirituality, and Wildness in America

Trophies, Technology, and Timescape in Fisheries Management, as Exemplified through Oklahoma's World Record Paddlefish Polyodon spathula

“…In the past two decades, many native species have been found to have much longer life spans than formerly realized (Scoppettone 1988; Scarnecchia et al 2007; Lackmann et al 2019). And unlike trophies of most terrestrial wildlife (Peterson 2000), most of the largest fish are females (Bell 1980; Hixon et al 2014; Scarnecchia and Schooley 2020). More efficient targeting of trophy specimens has resulted in declines of trophy specimens of many species (He et al 2019), a trend even depicted in the size of trophy fish in photographs through decades (McClenachan 2009).…”

“…-Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea Amid the decline in market hunting and more gradual but inexorable decline in market (commercial) fishing in North America, a pronounced transition to more trophy hunting and fishing has occurred. Trophy fishing interest can be viewed as a natural response to the rise in recreational fishing in general, in many cases with a larger individual fish being substituted as "mnemonic totems" (Peterson 2000) for large quantities of fish under subsistence and commercial fishing. Reiger (1973) effectively depicted the origins and rise in marine saltwater angling in North America and identified Charles Frederick Holder (1851Holder ( -1915, also an avid conservationist, as the father of big-game angling.…”

Fisheries Volume 47 Number 9 September 2022

“…In the past two decades, many native species have been found to have much longer life spans than formerly realized (Scoppettone 1988 ;Scarnecchia et al 2007 ;Lackmann et al 2019 ). And unlike trophies of most terrestrial wildlife (Peterson 2000 ), most of the largest fi sh are females (Bell 1980 ;Hixon et al 2014 ;Scarnecchia and Schooley 2020 ). More effi cient targeting of trophy specimens has resulted in declines of trophy specimens of many species (He et al 2019 ), a trend even depicted in the size of trophy fi sh in photographs through decades (McClenachan 2009 ).…”

“…-Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea Amid the decline in market hunting and more gradual but inexorable decline in market (commercial) fi shing in North America, a pronounced transition to more trophy hunting and fi shing has occurred. Trophy fi shing interest can be viewed as a natural response to the rise in recreational fi shing in general, in many cases with a larger individual fi sh being substituted as "mnemonic totems" (Peterson 2000 ) for large quantities of fi sh under subsistence and commercial fi shing. Reiger (1973) effectively depicted the origins and rise in marine saltwater angling in North America and identifi ed Charles Frederick Holder (1851-1915, also an avid conservationist, as the father of big-game angling.…”