Saltwater recreational fishing has become an increasingly important leisure activity, yet gender-related differences in participation experiences remain insufficiently understood. This study investigates how gender shapes participation in saltwater recreational fishing by examining the factors influencing male and female participants and the underlying patterns of these factors. A total of 1241 social media posts were collected from Xiaohongshu and TikTok in China, resulting in 670 valid texts for analysis. Word frequency analysis, grounded theory coding, and hierarchical cluster analysis were combined to explore gender-related participation patterns. The results show that male and female participants share common participation experiences but differ in the relative emphasis placed on specific dimensions. Grounded theory analysis identified four core dimensions in the male participation model, including economic factors, participation guarantee, comprehensive experience, and psychological benefits, reflecting a structured participation logic. The female participation model consists of participation support conditions, comprehensive experience, natural conditions, and dual harvest, showing a more interconnected pattern among dimensions. Cluster analysis further revealed three conceptual clusters, including a male-preferred cluster, a female-preferred cluster, and a gender-neutral cluster, indicating that gender differences are characterized by variations in the distribution and relative importance of concepts rather than complete separation between genders. By integrating qualitative and quantitative approaches, this study contributes to understanding gendered participation experiences in saltwater recreational fishing. The findings also provide practical implications for developing more inclusive products and services in the saltwater recreational fishing industry.
Fisheries are increasingly needing to grapple with the need to consider human dimensions and external drivers such as fuel prices and climate change. In response, explicit adaptive approaches such as harvest strategies are being redesigned to strengthen the resilience of feedback management approaches and reduce the need to evoke exceptional circumstances. This can be achieved using Management Strategy Evaluation (MSE) to forecast alternative future scenarios and bound the range of plausible uncertainties. However, this process is also challenged by heterogeneous preferences and aspirations of stakeholders, especially for cross-jurisdictional multi-sector fisheries that are shared between Indigenous owners and non-Indigenous stakeholders. Here, we considered the Torres Strait tropical rock lobster Panulirus ornatus fishery, for which the empirical harvest control rule (eHCR) needed revision to improve resilience to extreme climate events, geopolitical influences on the supply chain and rising fuel prices. Based on consultation with the ‘Group of Rights holders, Advisors, Managers, Partners and Stakeholders’ (GRAMPS), a range of specially-tailored eHCR candidates were developed and tested using MSE, resulting in the successful adoption of a revised rapidly-adaptive eHCR in 2025. The preferred decision rule outputs annual recommended biological catch limits based on medium-term trends in fishery-independent and fishery-dependent data, adjusted by a catch multiplier that is weighted further by the most recent survey index and its associated precision. The success of this process was attributable in part to use of communication strategies to explain highly technical concepts to the GRAMPS to support their evaluation of trade-offs between competing management goals.
Bycatch in fisheries is a major threat to seabird populations worldwide, including in the eastern Pacific Ocean (EPO). Pelagic longline fisheries targeting tuna and swordfish globally account for tens of thousands of seabird mortalities annually. However, regional overlap patterns remain poorly quantified. To quantify spatial overlap with industrial and small-scale coastal longline fisheries in the EPO, we collated tracking data from 1993 to 2022 for albatrosses (12 species) and petrels (4 species) of high conservation concern. Utilization distributions (UDs) were calculated for each species split into breeding and non-breeding phases and according to age class and tag type, and overlaid with three pelagic longline effort datasets: industrial fisheries logbook data, Global Fishing Watch set-level data, and data on small-scale coastal fisheries. We also examined overlap of species UDs with the area where seabird bycatch mitigation is mandated by the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission (IATTC). Species with the highest fisheries-overlap, a proxy for exposure risk, included non-breeding adult black (Procellaria parkinsoni) and white-chinned petrels (P. aequinoctialis), Chatham (Thalassarche eremita), Buller’s (T. bulleri), Antipodean (Diomedea antipodensis antipodensis), and Salvin’s (T. salvini) albatrosses, and breeding waved albatrosses (Phoebastria irrorata). The IATTC mitigation area appeared to encompass most core habitat in the EPO for seabird species considered, with the notable exception being more tropically foraging black petrels, which largely occurred outside this area. Within this area, it is critical that mitigation measures follow the best available science, are updated as new science becomes available, and observer coverage is sufficient to monitor seabird bycatch rates and evaluate compliance.
Small-scale demersal fisheries in tropical territories support local economies and food security but are difficult to assess because of multispecies catches, diverse fishing practices, and limited biological and fisheries data. As a result, most stocks fall within data-limited categories for which conventional analytical assessments are not feasible. This study applied a productivity–Susceptibility Analysis (PSA) to evaluate the relative vulnerability of 172 demersal stocks (234 species) exploited by artisanal fisheries in five tropical territories: French Guiana, French Antilles, Mayotte, Réunion Island, and French Polynesia. To improve the interpretability of the results, vulnerability thresholds were calibrated using categories from the IUCN Red List as an independent reference for biological risk. The analysis revealed distinct regional differences in the vulnerability of the stocks. Mayotte exhibited the highest vulnerability, driven by both low productivity and high susceptibility, which is potentially linked to limited management measures regulating catch and harvest size. In French Guiana, vulnerability was also high but was mainly associated with low productivity, whereas susceptibility remained close to the regional average. Conversely, the French Antilles showed the lowest susceptibility scores, contributing to an overall lower vulnerability. These results highlight strong regional and taxonomic differences in vulnerability and reveal substantial knowledge gaps in life history and fisheries data. This study demonstrates that context-specific calibration of PSA thresholds can improve vulnerability screening and help prioritise research and precautionary management in tropical, data-limited fisheries.
In the United States, there are perhaps no freshwater fish more abundant, widespread, familiar, and important in introducing anglers to fishing than Bluegills Lepomis macrochirus. Despite thousands of published Bluegill studies, it is relatively uncommon for researchers to examine Bluegill populations at a landscape level across diverse water bodies that represent the majority of a state’s lacustrine ecosystems. To address this knowledge gap, the purpose of this study was to model Bluegill occurrence probability, relative abundance, and size structure as a function of morphometric, water-quality, and biotic factors in Iowa natural lakes. Logistic regression indicated that Bluegills were most likely to occur in moderate-depth to deep lakes (mean depth >2.2 m) with low chlorophyll-a (<39 µg/L). Generalized additive mixed modeling indicated that Bluegill relative abundance was negatively related to total phosphorus concentration and positively related to Largemouth Bass Micropterus nigricans abundance. Bluegill proportional size distribution (PSD) exhibited an inverted parabolic relationship with maximum depth and increased linearly with mean basin slope and orthophosphate concentration. The PSD of preferred-length Bluegills had a horizontal asymptotic relationship with dissolved oxygen, increased with orthophosphate concentration in sigmoidal fashion, decreased linearly with turbidity, and increased linearly with Black Crappie Pomoxis nigromaculatus abundance. These results reflect a variety of ecological mechanisms and have important implications for fisheries management. Iowa fisheries managers can predict Bluegill occurrence, relative abundance, and size structure—and ultimately manage populations for desired demographics—using readily available morphometric, water-quality, and biotic data, allowing for efficiencies in management resource allocation. Providing new information on Bluegill populations in the majority of Iowa’s natural lakes, this study represents a model-driven foundation for making management decisions.
