Recreational sector is the dominant source of fishing mortality for oceanic fishes in the Southeast United States Atlantic Ocean

Abstract

Recreational fishing is increasingly recognised as an important source of mortality for marine fish populations. In the United States, estimates of marine recreational catch and effort were recently revised for the time period 1981 and beyond, and for many species, the revised estimates were substantially higher than the original values. Here, the proportion of total landings that came from the recreational sector in the Southeast US Atlantic was quantified. The proportions for 22 oceanic species and for all species combined were computed, using a full time series of landings (1981–2016) and a more recent time series (1999–2016). For the full and recent time series, landings of most species (15/22 and 17/22, respectively) were dominated by the recreational sector. For all species combined, 71% of landings in the full time series were from the recreational sector, and 76% in the recent time series. Trend analysis indicated that most species had a stable or increasing proportion of landings from the recreational sector. In addition, stock assessments were conducted on four species, and the catch revisions increased the estimated scale of abundance and, in some cases, affected stock or fishery status. This work underscores the importance of recreational fishing for marine resource management.

Effectiveness of Venting and Descender Devices at Increasing Rates of Postrelease Survival of Black Sea Bass

“…; Davis ; Shertzer et al. ). Management strategies to reduce discard mortality often include attempts to reduce the number of regulatory discards as well as to encourage or require devices to treat discarded individuals (Alverson et al.…”

“…Over half of the 47 billion marine and freshwater fish caught annually worldwide are released (Cooke and Cowx 2004) but many of these individuals experience postrelease mortality when discarded. Discard mortality is recognized as a globally important fisheries issue, partly due to the increasing impact of recreational fishing (Hall et al 2000;Davis 2002;Shertzer et al 2019). Management strategies to reduce discard mortality often include attempts to reduce the number of regulatory discards as well as to encourage or require devices to treat discarded individuals (Alverson et al 1994;GMFMC 2007).…”

Discard Mortality of Red Snapper Released with Descender Devices in the U.S. South Atlantic

“…Finally, hook type use from the private recreational fishery remains unknown, though some selfreported data (via a mobile application) do exist (Errigo and Collier 2020). The recreational sector is responsible for a large proportion of the fishing mortality for marine fishes in the SEUSA (Coleman et al 2004;Shertzer et al 2019). Here, we make the assumption that hooks used by headboats and charters are representative of those used by the entire recreational fleet, but this may not be the case.…”

“…Although we did not examine survival for surface-released Red Snapper here, our overall discard mortality estimate when descenders were used is lower than estimates used in either of the recent stock assessments for this species (SEDAR 2017(SEDAR , 2021, which accounted for surface releases. Mitigating the effects of barotrauma is increasingly important in the SEUSA as the proportion of caught fish that are released increases for many species (Zeller et al 2018;Runde et al 2020a), as fishing effort grows, particularly in the recreational sector (Shertzer et al 2019), and as several key species of reef fish show concerning population trends (NOAA Fisheries 2020). The presence of descender devices is currently required on vessels possessing or targeting reef fish in the SEUSA; however, the use of descender devices is only encouraged, not required, and it is certain that many impaired fish are still being released without assistance.…”

Depredation of Demersal Reef Fishes Released with Descender Devices Is Uncommon off North Carolina, USA

“…Physoclistous demersal fishes commonly experience barotrauma during capture as a result of the pressure change between the seafloor and the surface (Davis 2002;Gravel and Cooke 2008;Carlson 2012). Due to regulations or angler preference (Quinn 1996;Kelleher 2005), many such fish are released-with increasing prevalence in some fisheries (Cooke and Cowx 2006;Shertzer et al 2019;Runde et al 2020a). Expanded internal gases can prevent submergence, and floating fish are likely to die (Schreer et al 2009;Rudershausen et al 2014;Runde et al 2019).…”