Conservation bottom-up initiatives in marine recreational spearfishing suggest the emergence of positive attitudes towards conservation

Sbragaglia, Valerio; Arlinghaus, Robert

doi:10.3989/scimar.05139.05a

Cited by 7 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…These organizations can help to create bridges between spearfishers, researchers and management agencies (Sbragaglia et al, 2021a). Recreational spearfishing organizations could play a key role in promoting proactive behaviours related to management and conservation actions, as well as providing an important educational role for new generations of spearfishers (Arlinghaus et al, 2019;Sbragaglia and Arlinghaus, 2020;Sbragaglia et al, 2021a). Second, the few existing studies did not consider the social and economic perspective of spearfishing tournaments and possible management tradeoffs with the potential ecological impact.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ecological, Social and Economic Aspects of Italian Marine Spearfishing Tournaments (2009-2020)

2022

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Marine recreational spearfishing is practiced by a small proportion of recreational fishers and ecological, social and economic aspects of such activities are poorly understood with respect to recreational angling. The Italian Federation of Sport Fishing and Underwater Activities (FIPSAS) started in 2009 the collection of catch data related to Italian spearfishing tournaments. Here, we provide the first snapshot of this catch data regarding 48 tournaments organized in 29 different Italian localities from 2009 to 2020. We also developed a survey to collect social and economic information that has been administrated to participants to the tournaments. We retrieved 8843 specimens caught by spearfishers, which accounted for 33 species and a total biomass of 5665 kg (mean individual mass ± standard error; 0.64 ± 0.01 kg). The five most frequently species represented 78% of the specimens caught (white seabream, Diplodus sargus 48%; brown wrasse, Labrus merula 12%; brown meagre, Sciaena umbra 9%, green wrasse, Labrus viridis 5%; salema, Sarpa salpa 4%). The overall catch per unit effort for all the tournaments was 0.47 ± 0.01 kg/spearfisher/h, and we showed interesting effects of type of tournaments and type of displacement on it. We also assessed the accuracy of participants to catch fish in accordance to tournaments-specific minimum weight limits. The five most caught species showed that spearfishers committed errors around 50 g below the weight limit. The survey showed that spearfishers participating to tournaments are trophy-fish oriented (i.e., they would rather catch one or two big fish than ten smaller fish), but not particularly catch oriented (i.e., they are just as happy if they do not shoot the fish they see and a fishing trip can be successful even if no fish are caught). Regarding the motives for fishing, they fish for experiencing adventure, excitement and new and different things as well as to be underwater. Participants spent from 2 to 26 days in the tournament locations (median equal to 7 days), which implies a total expenditure to solely participate to the tournaments ranging from 800 to 3500 Euros (mean ± standard deviation; 1800 ± 591 euros). This study represents the first ecological, social and economic baseline knowledge for an integrative management of contemporary spearfishing tournaments.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ecological, Social and Economic Aspects of Italian Marine Spearfishing Tournaments (2009-2020)

2022

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“…Recreational spearfishing can directly (e.g., by spearfisher local ecological knowledge) or indirectly (e.g., by passive mining of digital data or tournaments) contribute to ecological understanding and conservation of marine ecosystems (e.g., Sbragaglia et al 2020a;Foster et al 2023). Such use may be encouraged, especially as voluntary bottom-up resource-conserving actions (Sbragaglia and Arlinghaus 2020), because they provide complementary and alternative information to costly institutional actions (Cooke et al 2013;Fujitani et al 2017;Arlinghaus et al 2019). An overarching question is whether the ecological knowledge of recreational spearfishers differs from that of recreational anglers Fig.…”

Section: The Ecological Knowledge Of Recreational Spearfishersmentioning

confidence: 99%

A global review of marine recreational spearfishing

Sbragaglia,

Arlinghaus,

Blumstein

et al. 2023

Rev Fish Biol Fisheries

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Recreational spearfishing is a fishing method that occurs globally, yet receives considerably less attention in the scientific literature relative to other recreational fishing methods, such as angling. Lack of scientific information on spearfishing may negatively affect the development and management of marine recreational fisheries. We conducted a systematic review of 102 peer-reviewed papers published between 1967 and 2022 pertaining to marine recreational spearfishing. Based on this literature review, we provide an overview of key insights across social, economic, and ecological dimensions of marine recreational spearfishing. While spearfishers represent less than 5% of marine recreational fishers, the participants are younger and may differ from recreational anglers in their motivations, with suggestions of increased well-being generated from a close connection with the sea during underwater fishing. Recreational spearfishers mostly target species of moderate to high levels of vulnerability that are mid to high trophic level carnivores. Though spearfishers can deliberately target larger individuals of exploited populations, this is not a generalizable pattern. Despite a growing body of research on the ecological impacts of marine recreational spearfishing, there is limited knowledge of these effects and their mechanisms across biological levels of organization (e.g., individual, population, community and ecosystem) compared with those of other fishing methods. Recreational spearfishers can contribute to advances in marine ecological knowledge, and inclusive participatory management could represent a key step towards transformative sustainable development of marine recreational spearfishing. Throughout the review, we identify gaps in the research and areas where future research is needed to better inform the socio-economic importance, ecosystem impacts and future management of marine recreational spearfishing.

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“…Shark research has grown in recent decades [ 13 ] and data collected by the public can provide a cost-effective means of monitoring populations of wild animals [ 3 , 14 , 15 ]. Several citizen science initiatives, taking advantage of growing numbers of recreational fishers, Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus (SCUBA) divers and free divers, have produced information used for conserving and managing fisheries and marine biodiversity [ 16 , 17 , 18 ]. This information includes data on corals, fish and charismatic fauna such as sharks [ 19 , 20 , 21 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Quantifying Catch Rates, Shark Abundance and Depredation Rate at a Spearfishing Competition on the Great Barrier Reef, Australia

Smith

Songcuan

Mitchell

et al. 2022

Biology

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We developed and applied a method to quantify spearfisher effort and catch, shark interactions and shark depredation in a boat-based recreational spearfishing competition in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park in Queensland. Survey questions were designed to collect targeted quantitative data whilst minimising the survey burden of spearfishers. We provide the first known scientific study of shark depredation during a recreational spearfishing competition and the first scientific study of shark depredation in the Great Barrier Reef region. During the two-day spearfishing competition, nine vessels with a total of 33 spearfishers reported a catch of 144 fish for 115 h of effort (1.25 fish per hour). A subset of the catch comprised nine eligible species under competition rules, of which 47 pelagic fish were weighed. The largest fish captured was a 34.4 kg Sailfish (Istiophorus platypterus). The most common species captured and weighed was Spanish Mackerel (Scomberomorus commerson). The total weight of eligible fish was 332 kg and the average weight of each fish was 7.1 kg. During the two-day event, spearfishers functioned as citizen scientists and counted 358 sharks (115 h effort), averaging 3.11 sharks per hour. Grey Reef Sharks (Carcharhinus amblyrhynchos) comprised 64% of sightings. Nine speared fish were fully depredated by sharks as spearfishers attempted to retrieve their catch, which equates to a depredation rate of 5.9%. The depredated fish included four pelagic fish and five reef fish. The shark species responsible were Grey Reef Shark (C. amblyrhynchos) (66%), Bull Shark (Carcharhinus leucas) (11%), Whitetip Reef Shark (Triaenodon obesus) (11%) and Great Hammerhead (Sphyrna mokarran) (11%). There were spatial differences in fish catch, shark sightings and rates of depredation. We developed a report card that compared average catch of fish, sightings of sharks per hour and depredation rate by survey area, which assists recreational fishers and marine park managers to assess spatio-temporal changes. The participating spearfishers can be regarded as experienced (average 18 days a year for average 13.4 years). Sixty percent of interviewees perceived that shark numbers have increased in the past 10 years, 33% indicated no change and 7% indicated shark numbers had decreased. Total fuel use of all vessels was 2819 L and was equivalent to 6.48 tons of greenhouse gas emissions for the competition.

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Conservation bottom-up initiatives in marine recreational spearfishing suggest the emergence of positive attitudes towards conservation

Cited by 7 publications

References 17 publications

Ecological, Social and Economic Aspects of Italian Marine Spearfishing Tournaments (2009-2020)

Ecological, Social and Economic Aspects of Italian Marine Spearfishing Tournaments (2009-2020)

A global review of marine recreational spearfishing

Quantifying Catch Rates, Shark Abundance and Depredation Rate at a Spearfishing Competition on the Great Barrier Reef, Australia

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