The impact of marine recreational fishing on key fish stocks in European waters

Abstract

Marine recreational fishing (MRF) has been shown to substantially contribute to fishing mortality of marine fish. However, European MRF catches are only quantified for a small number of stocks, so it is unclear whether a significant part of fishing mortality is excluded from stock assessments. This study estimated: (i) European MRF removals, which were defined as landings plus dead releases; and (ii) impact at stock level by comparing the percentage contribution to total removal by MRF and commercial fishing. As MRF data were limited for some European countries, catches were reconstructed using a mixture of average release proportions, average fish weights, and extrapolation using the catch per fisher of the nearest country providing catch estimates. Where catch reconstructions exceeded 50%, data were excluded from further analysis. Furthermore, as MRF survey methodology can be variable, semi-quantitative estimates of bias and error were calculated for each stock. Only 10 of the 20 stocks assessed in this study had sufficient MRF data for full reliable estimates. Percentage contribution to total removals (MRF + commercial removals) by MRF ranged between 2% for Atlantic mackerel in the North Sea and Skagerrak and 43% for Atlantic pollack in the Celtic Seas and English Channel. The biomass removed ranged between 297 (± 116) tonnes (Atlantic cod in the western English Channel and southern Celtic seas) and 4820 (± 1889) tonnes (Atlantic mackerel in the North Sea and Skagerrak), but the errors were substantial. Additionally, the bias in the estimated removals was low for most stocks, with some positive biases found. The present study indicates that removals by MRF can represent a high proportion of the total removals for some European marine fish stocks, so inclusion in stock assessments should be routine. To achieve this, regular surveys of MRF are required to collect data essential for stock assessments.

Marine recreational fishing and the implications of climate change

“…The many different potential impacts and changes in recreational fisheries could lead to changes in fisher motivation and behaviour, and subsequent participation levels, as the rewards of fishing change (box labelled Participation & motivation). Further, more active management of recreational fishing may be required in some instances, particularly where recreational catches need to be explicitly considered in stock management (Hyder et al, ; Radford et al, ). Arguably, resources can be best managed if the response of a system can be predicted (Szuwalski & Hollowed, ), and so understanding how fish availability and catchability will change, and the likely responses of recreational fishers, is essential in ensuring that effective fisheries management is put in place under a changing climate.…”

“…The many different potential impacts and changes in recreational fisheries could lead to changes in fisher motivation and behaviour, and subsequent participation levels, as the rewards of fishing change (box labelled Participation & motivation). Further, more active management of recreational fishing may be required in some instances, particularly where recreational catches need to be explicitly considered in stock management Radford et al, 2018).…”

“…Around the world, it has been estimated that around 121 million people a year participate in recreational fishing, although participation varies greatly across countries (Cisneros‐Montemaier & Sumala, ). With such high participation and significant catches in some places (Radford et al, ), climate change impacts on the sector could have wide implications for ecosystems, the economy and more generally on people's well‐being.…”

Governing the recreational dimension of global fisheries

“…Although commercial capture fisheries globally harvest about 8 times the fish biomass caught by recreational fisheries (4), in many localities recreational landings now rival or even exceed the biomass removals by commercial fisheries. In inland waters in the temperate zone, recreational anglers are now the predominant users of wild fish stocks (5), and recreational fishers have become prevalent in many coastal and marine fisheries (6,7). Globally, recreational fishers catch about 47 billion individual fish per year, of which more than half are released alive (4), either because of harvest regulations or in response to personal ethics (8).…”

The sustainable use and exploitation of fishes

“…Non-commercial fishing, including sport fishing, represents an important source of both food and income for many people throughout the world as well as providing relaxation and enjoyment. The actual size of the recreational sector is often unreported, and the scale of the removals from fish stocks has only recently been appreciated (Radford et al, 2018;Cooke et al, 2019;Couce et al, 2019). Although some countries have a long history of managing their recreational fisheries, elsewhere monitoring is patchy or has been confined to specific sectorsoften under private ownership.…”