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The physiological consequences of catch-and-release angling: Perspectives on experimental design, interpretation, extrapolation and relevance to stakeholders

Version 2 2024-06-04, 13:23
Version 1 2017-11-26, 11:07
journal contribution
posted on 2013-04-01, 00:00 authored by S J Cooke, M R Donaldson, C M O'connor, G D Raby, R Arlinghaus, A J Danylchuk, K C Hanson, S G Hinch, Timothy ClarkTimothy Clark, D A Patterson, C D Suski
Over the past 20 years, there has been a dramatic increase in the use of physiological tools and experimental approaches for the study of the biological consequences of catch-and-release angling practices for fishes. Beyond simply documenting problems, physiological data are also being used to test and refine different strategies for handling fish such that s tress is minimised and survival probability maximised, and in some cases, even for assessing and facilitating recovery post-release. The inherent sensitivity of physiological processes means that nearly every study conducted has found some level of - unavoidable - physiological disturbance arising from recreational capture and subsequent release. An underlying tenet of catch-and-release studies that incorporate physiological tools is that a link exists between physiological status and fitness. In reality, finding such relationships has been elusive, with further extensions of individual-level impacts to fish populations even more dubious. A focus of this article is to describe some of the challenges related to experimental design and interpretation that arise when using physiological tools for the study of the biological consequences of catch-and-release angling. Means of overcoming these challenges and the extrapolation of physiological data from individuals to the population level are discussed. The argument is presented that even if it is difficult to demonstrate strong links to mortality or other fitness measures, let alone population-level impacts of catch-and-release, there remains merit in using physiological tools as objective indicators of fish welfare, which is an increasing concern in recreational fisheries. The overarching objective of this paper is to provide a balanced critique of the use of physiological approaches in catch-and-release science and of their role in providing meaningful information for anglers and managers.

History

Journal

Fisheries management and ecology

Volume

20

Issue

2-3

Pagination

268 - 287

Publisher

John Wiley & Sons

Location

Chichester, Eng.

ISSN

0969-997X

eISSN

1365-2400

Language

eng

Publication classification

C Journal article; C1.1 Refereed article in a scholarly journal

Copyright notice

2012, Blackwell Publishing