Recreational fisheries in inland waters

Abstract

Recreational fisheries represent the dominant fisheries sector targeting wild freshwater fishes in all industrialized nations and are becoming increasingly popular in some emerging economies. The socio-economic benefits of recreational fisheries are numerous and substantial. Recreational fisheries through their practices (e.g. overharvest, habitat change, release mortality, stocking and dispersal of non-native fishes), however, have been implicated in negative effects on populations and ecosystems. In inland waters, fish populations also face a variety of threats that are external to the recreational fisheries sector such that recreational fisheries often operate on top of already imperilled resources. This chapter characterizes the scope and magnitude of inland recreational fisheries globally, explores recreational fisheries as a coupled social-ecological system, reviews management strategies, identifies the main issues faced by inland recreational fisheries and discusses the future of recreational fishing in inland waters with an emphasis on research and information needs to ensure their long-term sustainability.

Recommendations for the future of recreational fisheries to prepare the social‐ecological system to cope with change

“…; Cowx ; Cooke et al . ). The socio‐economic importance of recreational fisheries often remains unnoticed in many emerging economy countries, and consequently governance structures have not sufficiently developed to cater for the unique social‐ecological characteristics of recreational fisheries.…”

Relationship between fish assemblage and angler catch in the Sulejów Reservoir, central Poland, in the context of a warming climate

“…Changes throughout the world are forcing inland fisheries managers to seek new approaches to cope with current and future climates and ecosystem and social challenges (Arlinghaus, Lorenzen, Johnson, Cooke & Cowx, ; Cooke, Arlinghaus, Johnson & Cowx, ; Hunt et al., ). Reservoirs are relatively novel, artificial and heavily modified water bodies with many characteristics and functions that are not comparable to natural lakes and might require different approaches and solutions (Blabolil et al., ; Launois, Veslot, Irz & Argillier, ).…”

“…Such a perspective emphasises the role of fishers in an ecosystem in a biological sense and considers catchability to be community‐ and density‐dependent, even though anglers should be potentially more flexible than other predators. The literature presents fishery responses in a complex manner that often depends on socio‐economic utilities, for example, recreational benefits or access costs (Arlinghaus, Mehner & Cowx, ; Cooke et al., ; Hunt, Arlinghaus, Lester & Kushneriuk, ; Hunt, Sutton & Arlinghaus, ). Unfortunately, the majority of the research is single species‐oriented, primarily focused on the conservation or sustainable exploitation of angler target species (Carpenter, Munoz‐Del‐Rio, Newman, Rasmussen & Johnson, ; Johnston, Arlinghaus & Dieckmann, ; Kaufman, Snucins, Gunn & Selinger, ) and is not able to provide much evidence for fish‐angler interactions at the community level.…”

“…Unfortunately, the majority of the research is single species‐oriented, primarily focused on the conservation or sustainable exploitation of angler target species (Carpenter, Munoz‐Del‐Rio, Newman, Rasmussen & Johnson, ; Johnston, Arlinghaus & Dieckmann, ; Kaufman, Snucins, Gunn & Selinger, ) and is not able to provide much evidence for fish‐angler interactions at the community level. In this paper, evidence is provided to contribute to filling this gap in knowledge (Cooke et al., ). The objectives were to: (a) establish whether water temperature changes in the Pilica River are similar to the changes in other systems and to what extent water temperature is modified by the presence of the reservoir; (b) determine what the relationship between angler catch composition and biomass harvested in the reservoir is in relation to the fluctuation in fish community structure revealed by gillnetting over the period 2004–2014; and (c) discuss the prospects of recreational fishery management in Polish reservoirs in the context of climatic, environmental and social challenges.…”

On the sustainability of inland fisheries: Finding a future for the forgotten

“…On the other hand, inland fisheries can be substantially enhanced where access restrictions are acceptable and technical means available (e.g., juvenile fish for stocking from the aquaculture industry). In many developed countries, inland fisheries provide not only food but also lucrative recreational fisheries (Arlinghaus and Cooke 2009;Cooke et al 2015;Tufts et al 2015) and are increasingly being recognized as sources of livelihood support in developing countries (Bower et al 2014;Barnett et al 2015).…”