The impact of catch-and-release angling on short-term behaviour and habitat choice of northern pike (Esox lucius L.)

Abstract

In the northern hemisphere, pike (Esox lucius Linnaeus) is one of the most important recreational fisheries resources, and regulatory or voluntary catch-and-release angling is common. No information is available about the potential sublethal impacts on pike that catch-and-release fishing may cause, such as behavioural alterations and changes in habitat choice after release. Radio telemetry with N = 20 pike was used to test the hypothesis that fish modify behaviour by reducing movement as a reaction to a catch-and-release event in a previously unfished, slightly eutrophic lake, having an area of 25 ha and located in northeastern Germany. During a 7-month tracking period, activity of pike was monitored for consecutive 24 h every week. Minimum displacement per hour (m) and distance to shore (m) were significantly lower upon the first post release tracking compared to tracking before the capture. Two tracking events after capture, both movement and distance to shore were similar to those measured during pre-angling. There were no significant relations between the change in movement and distance to shore and size of pike. In terms of habitat choice, pike significantly selected for reed and avoided the pelagic area over the whole study period that was not influenced by catch-and-release angling. The results indicated that catch-and-release induces short-term behavioural alterations in pike, probably explained by physiological disturbances and facilitated by evolved anti-predation behaviours. Such alterations, however, seem to be of short duration and reversible suggesting sublethal catch-and-release impacts on pike behaviour are limited.

Behavioural and fitness consequences of direct and indirect non-lethal disturbances in a catch-and-release northern pike (Esox lucius) fishery

“…In general, swimming activity of pike was found to be related to environmental variables, total length of the fish and two factors indicative of direct disturbance stimuli. While it is well-known that pike activity is positively related to water temperature and body length of fish (Kobler et al, 2008a), the significant negative long-term impact of direct disturbances on movement activity of pike extends the preliminary finding by Klefoth et al (2008) who found that pike reduced swimming activity to a single catch-and-release event but resumed normal swimming patterns within a week post-release. However, Klefoth et al (2008) only analysed the behaviour of pike within a confined time frame (i.e., two weeks) by comparing movement prior to, and directly after a catch-and-release event.…”

“…While it is well-known that pike activity is positively related to water temperature and body length of fish (Kobler et al, 2008a), the significant negative long-term impact of direct disturbances on movement activity of pike extends the preliminary finding by Klefoth et al (2008) who found that pike reduced swimming activity to a single catch-and-release event but resumed normal swimming patterns within a week post-release. However, Klefoth et al (2008) only analysed the behaviour of pike within a confined time frame (i.e., two weeks) by comparing movement prior to, and directly after a catch-and-release event. In their study, individual pike served as their own "controls" and there was no attempt to control for confounding variables such as abiotic conditions, levels of angling effort or total length of fish.…”

“…Direct disturbance stimuli were expressed through variables indicating short-term effects of a single capture event and long-term cumulative effects of multiple captures throughout the season (Barton et al, 1986). Short-term effects were defined as a capture within the last tracking interval of one week (CAPTURED) and were based on the findings by Klefoth et al (2008). Long-term effects were defined as the cumulative number of captures from the beginning of the study (RECAPTURES).…”

Nest Success, Abundance, and Length Distribution of Age-0 Largemouth Bass in Sanctuaries and Areas Open to Fishing

“…In a study of five Michigan lakes, Wagner et al [22] found that the chance of producing swim-up fry did not decrease with increasing fishing pressure. Catch-and-release angling did not change movement or behavior of Pike Esox lucius in a slightly eutrophic lake in Germany [23]. The catch-and release angling that occurs on BCL does not appear to negatively impact nest success rates and therefore would not be expected to influence recruitment.…”

A lake as a microcosm: reflections on developments in aquatic ecology

“…4 The relation between macrophyte cover (% of the bottom covered with macrophytes) and the number of resting herbivorous waterfowl, mainly coot (Fulica atra; r = 0.86; F = 25.00; p \ 0.001) and invertebrate feeding waterfowl (r = 0.68; F = 7.67; p \ 0.022) in Lake Krankesjön. Each data point represents 1 year (data from: Hansson et al 2010) catch-and-release (C&R) fishing is now commonly practiced, where caught fish are landed, unhooked and released at the capture location with the aim to cause fish as little harm as possible (Klefoth et al 2008;Arlinghaus et al 2009;Stålhammar et al 2012).…”