Fishing in the dark: The science and management of recreational fisheries at night
Recreational fshing is a popular activity around the globe, generating billions of dollars in economic beneft based on fsheries in marine and inland waters. In most developed countries, recreational fsheries are managed to achieve diverse objectives and ensure that such fsheries are sustainable. While many anglers fsh during daylight hours, some target fsh species during the night. Indeed, sensory physiology of some species makes them vulnerable to capture at night, while being more difcult to capture during the day. However, night creates a number of challenges for recreational fsheries assessment and management. In some jurisdictions, fshing is prohibited at night (through both effort and harvest controls) or there are specifc restrictions placed on night fsheries (e.g., no use of artifcial lights). Here, we summarize the science and management of recreational fsheries at night covering both inland and marine realms. In doing so, we also provide a review of different angling regulations specifc to night fsheries across the globe, as well as the basis for those regulations. We discuss the extent to which there is both need and opportunity to actively manage anglers who are targeting fsh at night and how this differs from fsheries that occur during lighted periods. We provide two case studies, one for white sturgeon (Acipenser transmontanus Richardson, 1836) and one for walleye [Sander vitreus (Mitchill, 1818)], for which nighttime closures have been used as a fsheries management tool to control effort and harvest (illegal harvest in the case of the sturgeon case study). Based on the synthesis, we conclude that natural resource management agencies should decide if and how they need to manage recreational fsheries at night, recognizing the practical challenges (e.g., compliance monitoring, stock assessment) with doing so in the dark.
|Journal||Bulletin of Marine Science|
Cooke, S.J, Lennox, R.J. (Robert J.), Bower, S.D. (Shannon D.), Horodysky, A.Z. (Andrij Z.), Treml, M.K. (Melissa K.), Stoddard, E. (Erin), … Danylchuk, A.J. (Andy J.). (2017). Fishing in the dark: The science and management of recreational fisheries at night. Bulletin of Marine Science, 93(2), 519–538. doi:10.5343/bms.2015.1103