Fishing

About: Fishing is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 26543 publications have been published within this topic receiving 455552 citations. The topic is also known as: angling.

Response of potential fish community indicators to fishing

Abstract: Fish community metrics and diversity indices have often been proposed as indicators to support an Ecosystem Approach to Fisheries Management. The response of eight fish community indicators to spatio-temporal changes in fishing effort was studied by comparing the rate of change in (i) areas subject to different levels (high, medium, and low) of fishing effort and (ii) areas inside and outside a closed area (the plaice box) where management measures led to changes in fishing effort over time. Several indicators showed broadly consistent responses to fishing effort (slope of the biomass-size spectra, mean weight, and mean maximum length) while a range of biodiversity indices and biomass did not. The response of the indicators to spatio-temporal changes in fishing effort showed that, with the exception of the slope of the biomass-size spectra, none of the indicators reliably detected the effects of spatial management measures at the scales of time and space that were used for these analyses. While some of the size-based indicators we tested did provide evidence for fishing impacts on communities, the response of the indicators to fishing was not straightforward and may have depended on environmental conditions and historic fishing regimes. Therefore, the indicators would provide limited support for assessing the effects of short-term and small-scale management actions and must be applied with caution until we have an improved theoretical understanding of their response to fishing and the environment.

A Broad‐Scale Approach to Management of Ontario's Recreational Fisheries

Abstract: Sustainable exploitation of Ontario's aquatic resources calls for a new management approach. This vast resource includes more than 250,000 lakes and offers angling opportunities for many popular species (e.g., walleye Sander vitreus (formerly Stizostedion vitreum), lake trout Salvelinus namaycush, brook trout S. fontinalis, northern pike Esox lucius, smallmouth bass Micropterus dolomieu, largemouth bass M. salmoides, and muskellunge E. masquinongy). In pioneer days, the “apparently inexhaustible abundance of resources” fostered an open-access policy promoting the recreational use of these resources for the benefit of the economy. After World War II, there was a rapid increase in angling effort and by the 1970s many lakes were being overexploited. Clearly, an unrestricted, open-access policy was no longer appropriate. The result has been a rapid proliferation of fishing regulations as exceptions to divisionwide regulations that were created to protect lakes where problems were detected. The growin...

A Bird’s Eye View of Discard Reforms: Bird-Borne Cameras Reveal Seabird/Fishery Interactions

Abstract: Commercial capture fisheries produce huge quantities of offal, as well as undersized and unwanted catch in the form of discards. Declines in global catches and legislation to ban discarding will significantly reduce discards, but this subsidy supports a large scavenger community. Understanding the potential impact of declining discards for scavengers should feature in an eco-system based approach to fisheries management, but requires greater knowledge of scavenger/fishery interactions. Here we use bird-borne cameras, in tandem with GPS loggers, to provide a unique view of seabird/fishery interactions. 20,643 digital images (one min−1) from ten bird-borne cameras deployed on central place northern gannets Morus bassanus revealed that all birds photographed fishing vessels. These were large (>15 m) boats, with no small-scale vessels. Virtually all vessels were trawlers, and gannets were almost always accompanied by other scavenging birds. All individuals exhibited an Area-Restricted Search (ARS) during foraging, but only 42% of ARS were associated with fishing vessels, indicating much ‘natural’ foraging. The proportion of ARS behaviours associated with fishing boats were higher for males (81%) than females (30%), although the reasons for this are currently unclear. Our study illustrates that fisheries form a very important component of the prey-landscape for foraging gannets and that a discard ban, such as that proposed under reforms of the EU Common Fisheries Policy, may have a significant impact on gannet behaviour, particularly males. However, a continued reliance on ‘natural’ foraging suggests the ability to switch away from scavenging, but only if there is sufficient food to meet their needs in the absence of a discard subsidy.