What is it about?
Catch-and-release angling (C&R) involves the release of live fish back into the water after their capture and so is an important management and conservation practice. However, capture by angling can cause an acute (short-term) stress response in fish, so fish that are recaptured regularly could become chronically stressed. Using scale cortisol concentrations - a recognised biomarker of fish chronic (long-term) stress - we actually show that hatchery-reared common carp used in C&R angling are actually highly resilient to chronic stress compared with wild carp that are never fished for. This is most likely due to their rearing in the hatchery that produces strains that are domesticated and have traits including high stress resilience.
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Photo by Roger Starnes Sr on Unsplash
Why is it important?
Approximately 10% of the global population have participated in recreational angling. Where catch-and-release angling is used, it is important to understand the long-term effects for fish that are recaptured regularly. Our results suggest that fish that we considered to be highly vulnerable to developing high levels of chronic stress through recapture events appear to be the most stress resilient. This suggests that their long-term stress levels are not being compromised by their regular exposure to potential stressors from angling. We also showed that farmed Atlantic salmon were also resilient to chronic stress versus wild salmon, suggesting resilience to chronic stress is a trait of domesticated fishes in general.
Perspectives
I hope our results are of high interest regarding the stress levels and welfare of fish captured regularly by recreational angling. Our results add to the knowledge that the capture of fish by angling is often non-random, with the fish most vulnerable to capture often being the ones that encounter angling baits most regularly and that have relatively low stress responses to repeated capture.
Robert Britton
Bournemouth University
Fisheries provide significant socioeconomic value worldwide, but it’s important to recognise that the animals at the heart of these systems also deserve consideration and care. I’m pleased that our work can help advance the conversation around fish welfare
Josephine Pegg
South African Institute for Aquatic Biodiversity
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Domestication as the driver of lower chronic stress levels in fish in catch-and-release recreational fisheries and aquaculture versus wild conspecifics, PLOS One, June 2025, PLOS,
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0326497.
You can read the full text:
Resources
Relationships of scale cortisol content suggest stress resilience in freshwater fish vulnerable to catch-and-release angling in recreational fisheries
A related publication
Influence of season, capture method, sample age and extraction protocols on the scale cortisol concentrations of three species of freshwater fish
A related publication
Combatting the decline in global fish populations
This is the web-site of the author's work
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