Actions speak louder than words: Tournament angling as an avenue to promote best practice for pelagic shark fishing

Matthew Heard, Stephen Sutton, Paul Rogers and Charlie Huveneers

Marine Policy, 2016, vol. 64, issue C, 168-173

Abstract: Social research can aid in understanding the behaviour of the general public or stakeholders towards natural resources. In the case of recreational fishing, social research aids in integrating anglers' knowledge and attitudes into management frameworks to increase the likelihood of the uptake of new management regulations. Tournament anglers were surveyed at game fishing competitions throughout New South Wales, Victoria, and South Australia between February 2012 and May 2013 to investigate their general beliefs around sharks and their behaviours when targeting pelagic sharks. Over half (55%) of the anglers interviewed practised catch and release of pelagic sharks. Of those, almost all (98%) asserted that they attempt to release sharks in good condition, but a large percentage of anglers (48%) did not use circle hooks that have been shown to increase post-release survival. Results showing some concordance between angler's beliefs and behaviours when targeting pelagic sharks suggest that anglers are cognisant of the functional role of sharks in the ecosystem and would be open to recommendations ensuring the long-term sustainability of recreational fisheries targeting pelagic sharks.

Keywords: Game fishing; Catch and release; Belief; Behaviours; Isurus oxyrinchus (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0308597X15003632
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:marpol:v:64:y:2016:i:c:p:168-173

DOI: 10.1016/j.marpol.2015.11.019

Access Statistics for this article

Marine Policy is currently edited by Eddie Brown

More articles in Marine Policy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().