Potential Environmental Impacts of Recreational Fishing on Marine Fish Stocks and Ecosystems

AbstractMarine recreational fishing (MRF) is a popular activity that involves millions of people worldwide. While the impactsof recreational fishing on freshwater ecosystemsreceived increasing attention in recent decades, the consequences of MRF takes place mainly on marine fish and ecosystems are largely unstudied. MRF takes mainly in coastal areas where most of its impactsconcentrate. This review identified and ranked the activities and potential risks associated with MRF using a risk assessment matrix based on ecological and fisheries-related literature. The majority of the impactswere rated to be of minor importance ( impactsthat occur locally, are reversible, and comparably easy to manage on local scales). Three impactswere ranked as high-risk impacts(severe impactsthat are difficult to reverse and to manage, and that may require managementmeasures on a broad spatial scale): (1) the direct and indirect impactsof high and selective fishing mortality(truncation of the natural age and size str...