Fishing grew as a hobby during the pandemic

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2023-07-19 09:01

Australia; International; TAS

Photo by Ryan Arnst on Unsplash

People got into recreational fishing during the pandemic with increased participation in the hobby lasting through 2021, according to a study of European countries by international and Australian researchers. The team used data from a popular portable fish-finder device across the Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany and Lithuania to look at recreational fishing rates from 2018 to 2021, with previous research showing use of the device was highly correlated with the actual amount of people going fishing. The researchers say recreational fishing rates increased 1.2–3.8-fold at the beginning of the pandemic across the four countries and remained generally above average to the end of 2021. The researchers say this likely had positive impacts for the fishers, but wasn't as good news for the fish.

Media release

From: The Royal Society

High-resolution app data reveal sustained increases in recreational fishing effort in Europe during and after COVID-19 lockdowns

COVID-19 pandemic slowed down human activity and, occasionally, allowed nature to recover. Recreational fishing, which in Europe involves nearly 10% of people, however, has likely increased, although estimates remain uncertain. This study analysed four years of anonymous high-resolution data from a popular fishfinder device in four European countries to assess how fishing activity changed during and after the COVID-19 lockdowns. It reveals that during the lockdowns fishing activity approximately doubled and generally remained higher even after the lockdowns. Such large increase in recreational fishing helped to maintain human well-being and local economies, but likely had large impacts on fish populations.

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Research The Royal Society, Web page The URL will go live after the embargo ends

Journal/
conference: Royal Society Open Science

Research:Paper

Organisation/s: University of Tasmania, Nature Research Centre, Lithuania

Funder: This study has received funding from European Regional Development Fund (Project No. 01.2.2-LMT-K-718- 02-0006) under grant agreement with the Research Council of Lithuania (LMTLT).

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