The risk of individual fish being captured multiple times in a catch and release fishery
Thorstad, Eva B.; Diserud, Ola Håvard; Solem, Øyvind; Havn, Torgeir Børresen; Bjørum, Lars Rasmus Oftedal; Kristensen, Torstein; Urke, Henning Andre; Johansen, Martin Rognli; Lennox, Robert J.; Fiske, Peder; Uglem, Ingebrigt
Peer reviewed, Journal article
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Date
2019Metadata
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- Scientific publications [1437]
Original version
10.1111/fme.12407Abstract
The proportion of angled Atlantic salmon Salmo salar L. being caught and released has
increased. If individuals are repeatedly captured, this may have fish welfare consequences.
Of 995 Atlantic salmon tagged during catch and release in eight Norwegian
rivers, 10% were captured twice, while 3% were captured three times within the
same fishing season. The probability that released salmon were captured again decreased
with decreasing time left of the fishing season, decreased for larger-sized fish
and varied among rivers/years. Increased exploitation rates within the river, indicating
an increased fishing pressure, strongly increased the probability that fish would
be recaptured. However, the proportion of salmon caught a second time was much
lower than the total exploitation rates in the same rivers (which was on average 46%).
For fish tagged in the sea, the likelihood of being angled decreased with time since
entering the river, which may explain why the recapture rates of caught and released
fish were lower than the total exploitation rates.