Forensic reconstruction ofIctalurus punctatusinvasion routes using on-line fishermen records

Abstract

-In this work, the presence of the channel catfish Ictalurus punctatus in the Portuguese section of the Guadiana drainage (Iberian Peninsula) is confirmed based on morphological and molecular species identification. The spatial and temporal dispersal of this non-native catfish was also reconstructed for the Guadiana drainage, based mostly on online fishermen records with minor contributions from the few scientific reports available. The obtained records (mainly from angling fora) span the period since the species' first reported presence in Iberia (1980s) up to the present, and support a westward invasion pattern of non-native fish (NNF) reported for the Iberian fish invasion hotspot. The invasion pathway is driven mainly by natural dispersal downstream at a rate between 8 and 42 km per year. Yet, at least four introduction events within the Guadiana drainage can unambiguously be assigned to human translocations after the initial human-mediated introduction. The present study reinforces the usefulness and relevance of using validated on-line fishermen records, provides a more complete and updated distribution range of NNF species and enables assessment of their dispersal patterns. This is of particular importance because it allows near realtime monitoring of NNF dispersal, including first occurrences of NNF, at minimal cost.

Descarte de Peixes Ornamentais em Águas Continentais Brasileiras Registrados no YoutubeTM: Ausência de Informação ou Crime Ambiental Deliberado?

“…Os dados disponíveis na Internet mostraram-se mais uma vez úteis, seja para a percepção de tendências e reflexão das ações humanas, como para o registro de ameaças ao meio ambiente (El Bizri et al, 2015;Banha et al, 2017), entre eles o descarte de peixes não nativos (Miyazaki et al, 2016;. Mesmo que o descarte de animais em ambientes naturais seja crime ambiental, mais de 40 registros da prática foram observados somente no período de oito anos (média de seis práticas de descarte por ano), o que certamente representa uma pequena parcela destas ações, já que muitas delas não são registradas e compartilhadas.…”

“…Com o surgimento das inovações tecnológicas como smartphones, as pessoas podem compartilhar informações a qualquer momento, bem como fotos e vídeos de praticamente qualquer lugar do mundo nas redes e mídias sociais (Valcanis et al, 2011). O uso de tais mídias sociais, como o YouTube™, tem se mostrado eficaz para os pesquisadores identificarem problemas ambientais, como registros de caça ilegal ou ocorrência de espécies fora de sua distribuição natural (El Bizri et al, 2015;Miyazaki et al, 2016;Banha et al, 2017).…”

Identifying recreational fisheries in the Mediterranean Sea through social media

“…Unconventional sources of information, such as social network videos, are increasingly being used in recreational fisheries research in other parts of the world (Banha, Veríssimo, Ribeiro & Anastácio, ; Belhabib et al., ; Shiffman et al., ), but never so far in the Mediterranean Sea. Taking into account the scarcity of data regarding recreational fishing in the area (Hyder et al., ) and the poor situation of the Mediterranean fish stocks (European Environmental Agency (EEA), ), this work contributes to understanding recreational fishing in the Mediterranean and the Common Fisheries Policy goal for incorporating recreational fishing in national stock assessments.…”

Survey of angler's internet posts confirmed the occurrence of freshwater fishes of the genus Ictiobus (Rafinesque, 1819) in natural waters of Czechia

“…We are in agreement with Banha et al (2015) that the methodology could be considered very useful especially in case of forensic analysis dealing with non-native fish introduction history. On the other hand we are aware of disadvantages of the presented approach, which are summarized in Banha et al (2017) including various biases caused by the heterogeneity of anglers and different attitudes to publish their records.…”

“…These data can be analysed and used by managers and scientists e.g. for a detection of non-native species (Ribeiro and Veríssimo, 2014;Banha et al, 2015;Banha et al, 2017) or management settings (Martin et al, 2012).…”