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- Research and management priorities for Atlantic marine recreational fisheries in Southern EuropePublication . Pita, Pablo; Artetxe, Inaqui; Diogo, Hugo; Gomes, Pedro; Gordoa, Ana; Hyder, Kieran; Pereira, Joao; Pita, Cristina; Rangel, Mafalda; Garcia-Rodrigues, Joao; Sague, Oscar; Veiga, Pedro; Vingada, Jose; Villasante, SebastianMarine Recreational Fishing (MRF) is an important activity in Europe, with 9 million fishers and generating annually 6 billion in direct expenditures. However, there is a lack of data and understanding of MRF in Europe, particularly in Southern countries, which prevents a number of fish stocks from being effectively assessed and managed. In November 2016, a participatory workshop on MRF was held in Vigo (Spain) to identify challenges and opportunities for data collection, and to diagnose key research gaps and management issues for MRF in the Southern European Atlantic. Experts from a wide range of disciplines (researchers, policy makers, fisheries managers and commercial and recreational fishers) highlighted that the management of MRF is a challenge due to complex and dispersed legal frameworks, with multiple administrations involved, and overlapping uses of space with commercial fishing, aquaculture, navigation and tourism, among others. The lack of strong and representative fishing associations hampers research and management initiatives. Effective communication between recreational fishers, researchers and fisheries managers is also lacking. Despite the ecological, social and economic relevance of MRF, there is no systematic and comprehensive collection of information on fishing effort, recreational catches, expenses, social profile and access conditions of European recreational fishers. These data would be useful to avoid biases in the assessment of recreational fisheries due to the great diversity of ecosystems, species and typologies of users. Strategic recommendations and research priorities were also identified to address knowledge gaps and are discussed in the context of the management of MRF across Europe.
- Recreational sea fishing in Europe in a global contextParticipation rates, fishing effort, expenditure, and implications for monitoring and assessmentPublication . Hyder, Kieran; Weltersbach, Marc Simon; Armstrong, Mike; Ferter, Keno; Townhill, Bryony; Ahvonen, Anssi; Arlinghaus, Robert; Baikov, Andrei; Bellanger, Manuel; Birzaks, Janis; Borch, Trude; Cambie, Giulia; de Graaf, Martin; Diogo, Hugo M. C.; Dziemian, Lukasz; Gordoa, Ana; Grzebielec, Ryszard; Hartill, Bruce; Kagervall, Anders; Kapiris, Kostas; Karlsson, Martin; Kleiven, Alf Ring; Lejk, Adam M.; Levrel, Harold; Lovell, Sabrina; Lyle, Jeremy; Moilanen, Pentti; Monkman, Graham; Morales-Nin, Beatriz; Mugerza, Estanis; Martinez, Roi; O'Reilly, Paul; Olesen, Hans Jakob; Papadopoulos, Anastasios; Pita, Pablo; Radford, Zachary; Radtke, Krzysztof; Roche, William; Rocklin, Delphine; Ruiz, Jon; Scougal, Callum; Silvestri, Roberto; Skov, Christian; Steinback, Scott; Sundelof, Andreas; Svagzdys, Arvydas; Turnbull, David; van der Hammen, Tessa; van Voorhees, David; van Winsen, Frankwin; Verleye, Thomas; Veiga, Pedro; Volstad, Jon-Helge; Zarauz, Lucia; Zolubas, Tomas; Strehlow, Harry V.Marine recreational fishing (MRF) is a high-participation activity with large economic value and social benefits globally, and it impacts on some fish stocks. Although reporting MRF catches is a European Union legislative requirement, estimates are only available for some countries. Here, data on numbers of fishers, participation rates, days fished, expenditures, and catches of two widely targeted species were synthesized to provide European estimates of MRF and placed in the global context. Uncertainty assessment was not possible due to incomplete knowledge of error distributions; instead, a semi-quantitative bias assessment was made. There were an estimated 8.7 million European recreational sea fishers corresponding to a participation rate of 1.6%. An estimated 77.6 million days were fished, and expenditure was Euro5.9 billion annually. There were higher participation, numbers of fishers, days fished and expenditure in the Atlantic than the Mediterranean, but the Mediterranean estimates were generally less robust. Comparisons with other regions showed that European MRF participation rates and expenditure were in the mid-range, with higher participation in Oceania and the United States, higher expenditure in the United States, and lower participation and expenditure in South America and Africa. For both northern European sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax, Moronidae) and western Baltic cod (Gadus morhua, Gadidae) stocks, MRF represented 27% of the total removals. This study highlights the importance of MRF and the need for bespoke, regular and statistically sound data collection to underpin European fisheries management. Solutions are proposed for future MRF data collection in Europe and other regions to support sustainable fisheries management.
- Catches of the sport fishing competitions along the Algarve coast (Portugal): species, sizes, catch rates, and trendsPublication . Guerreiro, Ana I.; Veiga, Pedro; Erzini, KarimBackground. Stocks of many marine fishes are in decline and a number of studies suggest that for some species the impact of recreational angling may be important. To date, only recreational (leisure) fishing surveys have been conducted in Portugal, with no studies on beach angling competitions, dynamically increasing in number over the past 10 to 20 years. In view of the above, we decided to evaluate the impact of such events on the Algarve coast (southern Portugal) in terms of the abundance, diversity, and respective weight of fish species caught and outline some conservation measures and recommendations for the management of the targeted species. Materials and methods. Participants of 22 angling competitions taking place between February and June 2007 were surveyed. In each competition a random sample of anglers was interviewed, and the specimens caught by each participant were identified, weighed, and measured. Results. Thirteen taxa belonging to eight families were identified, and the most common were: garfish, Belone belone (Linnaeus, 1761); mullets, Mugilidae (not identified); and mackerels, Scomber spp. A total of 563 specimens were sampled, totalling 75.4 kg of weight, with the average catch per angler weighing 0.5 +/- 0.05 SE (n = 153) kg. Differences were also observed between the length at first maturity (L(50)) of the specimens caught and their respective Minimum Landing Size (MLS) and Allowed Minimum Size (AMS), most particularly in the case of the European seabass, Dicentrarchus labrax (L.), with almost all individuals caught measuring below the species-specific L50. Analysis of time series of competition results (1996-2009) showed no evidence of a decrease in catches or in mean weight. Conclusion. Based on the results we propose that the AMS for beach angling competitions should be increased to the MLS in order to prevent the capture of juvenile fishes, especially the sea bass. Future studies should address the size selectivity of the hooks used in beach competitions, with a view to the implementation of a minimum hook size for competitions.