Linking Angling Catch Rates and Fish Learning under Catch‐and‐Release Regulations

Askey, Paul J.; Richards, Shane A.; Post, John R.; Parkinson, Eric A.

doi:10.1577/m06-035.1

Cited by 124 publications

(134 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…Our results, although obtained from a single type of fishing gear, also should apply to fishing gear other than gillnets. For instance, trout in small lakes appear to be composed of highly vulnerable individuals that are rapidly caught by angling and individuals that more difficult to catch (22). Indeed, a recent study shows that vulnerability of fish to angling is a heritable trait in fish and is related to metabolic rate and some parental behaviors (23).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Rapid depletion of genotypes with fast growth and bold personality traits from harvested fish populations

Biro

Post

2008

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

Self Cite

380

396

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The possibility for fishery-induced evolution of life history traits is an important but unresolved issue for exploited fish populations. Because fisheries tend to select and remove the largest individuals, there is the evolutionary potential for lasting effects on fish production and productivity. Size selection represents an indirect mechanism of selection against rapid growth rate, because individual fish may be large because of rapid growth or because of slow growth but old age. The possibility for direct selection on growth rate, whereby fast-growing genotypes are more vulnerable to fishing irrespective of their size, is unexplored. In this scenario, faster-growing genotypes may be more vulnerable to fishing because of greater appetite and correspondingly greater feeding-related activity rates and boldness that could increase encounter with fishing gear and vulnerability to it. In a realistic whole-lake experiment, we show that fast-growing fish genotypes are harvested at three times the rate of the slow-growing genotypes within two replicate lake populations. Overall, 50% of fast-growing individuals were harvested compared with 30% of slow-growing individuals, independent of body size. Greater harvest of fast-growing genotypes was attributable to their greater behavioral vulnerability, being more active and bold. Given that growth is heritable in fishes, we speculate that evolution of slower growth rates attributable to behavioral vulnerability may be widespread in harvested fish populations. Our results indicate that commonly used minimum size-limits will not prevent overexploitation of fast-growing genotypes and individuals because of sizeindependent growth-rate selection by fishing.behavior ͉ fisheries ͉ selection ͉ temperament I t is well known that fisheries tend to select for larger and older fish individuals because of preference and/or regulations imposing minimum size limits for harvest. The result of sustained and heavy size-selective harvesting over time has been the removal of larger and/or later-maturing individuals from populations, leaving behind populations consisting of small, earlymaturing individuals, with low fecundity (1-3). Because growth rate affects fish size at age and size at maturity, a size-selective fishery may indirectly remove faster-growing individuals from a population. Studies suggest that this effect may represent contemporary evolution, leaving behind genotypes that are slowergrowing and early-maturing; this then can lead to reductions in harvestable biomass and population fecundity that in turn hinders population recovery from harvest (2-5). The possibility for evolutionary responses should not be surprising given high heritability of growth rate and other life history parameters in fish and the intensity of size-selective fish harvest reviewed in refs. 2, 6, and 7. However, we are aware of only two studies providing strong evidence of fisheries-induced evolution of growth and/or other life history traits (4, 5).A fishery may select upon growth rate through both indirec...

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Rapid depletion of genotypes with fast growth and bold personality traits from harvested fish populations

Biro

Post

2008

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

Self Cite

380

396

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“…However, while evidence that fishing alters fish behaviour, and potentially fishing success, has been reported from freshwater recreational fisheries (Cox & Walters 2002, Askey et al 2006) and commercial trawls (Pyanov & Zhuykov 1993), knowledge of the influence of behavioural changes on catchability of coral reef fishes is lacking, despite indications that fishing can influence fish detectability (Kulbicki 1998). Using the metric flight initiation distance (FID), which estimates how close an animal can be approached before it flees (also referred to as flight or approach distance) (Ydenberg & Dill 1986), it has been established that fishes on near-shore, shallow reefs open to fishing consistently flee from an observer at a greater distance than fishes in notake marine reserves (NTRs) (Cole 1994, Gotanda et al 2009.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Influence of spear guns, dive gear and observers on estimating fish flight initiation distance on coral reefs

Januchowski‐Hartley¹,

Nash²,

Lawton³

2012

Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser.

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Fish flight initiation distance (FID) is emerging as a useful metric of the response of fishes to fishing, with significant differences in FID demonstrated between fished and no-take marine reserves. However, studies investigating FID vary in methodology, and many of the potential confounding effects inherent to in-water estimation of FID have yet to be investigated. Here we examined relative effects of spear guns, dive gear, observer bias and protection status on FID estimates. Three observers estimated FID of parrotfishes in both a fished area and a no-take marine reserve, via both SCUBA and free-diving, and with and without a simulated spear gun (8 treatments). We found that FID was significantly influenced by protection status, increasing by 141 cm on average in the fished area compared to the no-take marine reserve, but not by dive type or spear gun presence. While there were some differences between observers' mean estimate of FID, there was no evidence of observer bias, nor were there any significant differences in the precision of FID estimates between observers. Overall, management status explained almost 60% of the variation in FID estimates, while observers accounted for only 4%. KEY WORDS: Approach distance · Marine reserve · Fish behaviour · Scaridae · Fishing effects · Confounding variables · Coral reef fishes · Vanuatu Resale or republication not permitted without written consent of the publisherMar Ecol Prog Ser 469: [113][114][115][116][117][118][119] 2012 ties (Jennings & Polunin 1996). However, methods such as underwater visual census (UVC) can show considerable variation when estimating fish abundances and biomass (McClanahan et al. 2007) even at low fishing pressures (Jennings & Polunin 1996), and lack of compliance with NTRs may be obscured by this variation. In contrast, fish FID is more tractable to high levels of replication, is sensitive even to low levels of fishing (e.g. Feary et al. 2011) and, consequently, may be an alternative, more powerful tool to gauge levels of compliance with NTRs. Management may be further informed through the implications changes in FID have for success of certain fishing gears (e.g. increased FID may result in decreased efficiency of spear guns), and subsequent impacts on fisher decision-making . If this is to occur, knowledge of how possible biases may confound our interpretations of fish FID is essential.Fish FID is estimated by an observer either using SCUBA gear or free-diving, who directly approaches a fish until it flees and then measures the distance between him or herself and the location from which the fish fled . Much of the fishing with spear guns on coral reefs is conducted by free-diving (Gillett & Moy 2006); in contrast, the majority of fish FID studies investigating fishing effects have been conducted while using SCUBA (Cole 1994, Gotanda et al. 2009. There is convincing evidence that fishes will actively avoid SCUBA divers (Dickens et al. 2011) and will potentially allow closer approaches by snorkelers (Welsh & Bellwood 2011). C...

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“…Johnson (1975) speculated that the evolution of the Florida bass in shallow-water habitats made it less vulnerable, while Johnson and Graham (1978) believed the Florida bass was more excitable. Several authors suggested that the differences observed in catchability were based on differences in wariness and learning ability (e.g., Beukema 1970;Rieger et al 1978;Askey et al 2006). In fact, Garrett (2002) used the differential vulnerability of the two species to select individuals from a mixed population of bass, and he went on to show that the vulnerability differences remained after breeding to produce a new generation of each.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Selection for Vulnerability to Angling in Largemouth Bass

Philipp

Cooke

Claussen³

et al. 2009

Trans Am Fish Soc

152

260

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Abstract.-Although a great deal of effort has been expended to try to understand the consequences of fishing-induced selection by commercial fisheries, relatively little effort has been put into trying to understand the selective effects of recreational angling. We conducted a long-term selection experiment to assess the heritability of vulnerability to angling in largemouth bass Micropterus salmoides. Three successive generations of artificially selected largemouth bass were produced from a single experimental study population. Within each generation, individual adult largemouth bass were identified as having either high or low vulnerability to angling through a series of controlled catch-and-release angling trials. Individuals of each vulnerability group (high and low) were then selected from that population for breeding to produce the next generation. The response to selection for vulnerability to angling increased with each generation; that is, the magnitude of the difference between the high-and low-vulnerability groups of fish increased with each successive generation. Realized heritability was calculated as 0.146 (r 2 ¼ 0.995), indicating that the vulnerability of largemouth bass to angling is indeed a heritable trait. Our results indicate that recreational angling has the potential to alter the gene pool of wild fish populations, which may indirectly affect population characteristics such as survival, growth rate, and reproductive output as well as directly affecting angling success rates.

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Linking Angling Catch Rates and Fish Learning under Catch‐and‐Release Regulations

Cited by 124 publications

References 19 publications

Rapid depletion of genotypes with fast growth and bold personality traits from harvested fish populations

Rapid depletion of genotypes with fast growth and bold personality traits from harvested fish populations

Influence of spear guns, dive gear and observers on estimating fish flight initiation distance on coral reefs

Selection for Vulnerability to Angling in Largemouth Bass

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