Reconciling traditional inland fisheries management and sustainability in industrialized countries, with emphasis on Europe

Abstract

In northern industrialized countries, the inland fisheries sector has long been dominated by recreational fisheries, which normally exploit fish for leisure or subsistence and provide many (poorly investigated) benefits to society. Various factors constrain the development and existence of inland fisheries, such as local user conflicts, low social priority and inadequate research and funding. In many cases, however, degradation of the environment and loss of aquatic habitat are the predominant concerns for the sustainability of inland fisheries. The need for concerted effort to prevent and reduce environmental degradation, as well as conservation of freshwater fish and fisheries as renewable common pool resources or entities in their own right is the greatest challenge facing sustainable development of inland waters. In inland fisheries management, the declining quality of the aquatic environment coupled with long‐term inadequate and often inappropriate fisheries management has led to an emphasis on enhancement practices, such as stocking, to mitigate anthropogenic stress. However, this is not always the most appropriate management approach. Therefore, there is an urgent need to alter many traditional inland fisheries management practices and systems to focus on sustainable development. This paper reviews the literature regarding the inputs needed for sustainability of inland fisheries in industrialized countries. To understand better the problems facing sustainable inland fisheries management, the inland fisheries environment, its benefits, negative impacts and constraints, as well as historical management, paradigms, trends and current practices are described. Major philosophical shifts, challenges and promising integrated management approaches are envisaged in a holistic framework. The following are considered key elements for sustainable development of inland fisheries: communication, information dissemination, education, institutional restructuring, marketing outreach, management plans, decision analysis, socioeconomic evaluation and research into the human dimension, in addition to traditional biological and ecological sciences. If these inputs are integrated with traditional fisheries management practices, the prospects for sustainability in the inland fisheries will be enhanced.

Social-ecological interactions, management panaceas, and the future of wild fish populations

“…S2). Many natural water bodies have been impaired by habitat changes (16) (Table S5), increasing the likelihood of wild population replacement after formation of stocking as a panacea. Almost ironically, habitat impairments often motivate stocking programs (8,11), such that stocking practices may actually put an additional burden on already threatened or declining wild stocks.…”

“…Surviving late juveniles and adults were regulated by density-independent factors, as is common in nature (7,32). Only adults were subjected to harvesting, mimicking exploitation using minimum-sized limits larger than size at maturation (16). The biological submodel was parameterized for a generic fish species and informed by metaanalyses on stock-recruitment relationships across important recreationally exploited taxa (Table S2).…”

“…Stocking is perceived by many as the most obvious solution to declining populations (10,11), but conservation biologists increasingly warn against unintended and often irreversible repercussions for aquatic biodiversity, ranging from genetic to community scales (e.g., 1,[12][13][14]. Therefore, understanding the evolution of stocking as a panacea-like management tool in the coupled SES of recreational fisheries and studying its impacts on wild fish populations are globally relevant (15), particularly because in many industrialized countries, fishing for recreational rather than commercial or subsistence purposes constitutes the dominant use of wild freshwater fish populations (16).…”

Establishing survey and monitoring protocols for the assessment of conservation status of fish populations in river Special Areas of Conservation in the UK

“…The management of SAC rivers should be based on a catchment-scale approach (Arlinghaus et al, 2002;Collares-Pereira and Cowx, 2004), because factors upstream and downstream of the designated area may contribute to the pressures on the fish stocks.…”

Changes in the fish community of Loch Leven: untangling anthropogenic pressures

“…When the complexities and uncertainties of fisheries socio-economics within a multiuse landscape (e.g. Arlinghaus et al, 2002) are added to this situation, objective and confident understanding and management of lake fish communities become extremely difficult to achieve.…”