Quantifying selection differentials caused by recreational fishing: development of modeling framework and application to reproductive investment in pike (Esox lucius).

ABSTRACT: Methods for quantifying selection pressures on adaptive traits affected by size-selective fishing are still scarce, and none have as yet been developed for recreational fishing. We present an ecologically realistic age-structured model specifically tailored to recreational fishing that allows estimating selection differentials on adaptive life-history traits. The model accounts for multiple ecological feedbacks, which result in density-dependent and frequency-dependent selection. We study selection differentials on annual reproductive investment under size-selective exploitation in a highly demanded freshwater recreational fish species, northern pike (Esox lucius L.). We find that recreational angling mortality exerts positive selection differentials on annual reproductive investment, in a

SUBMITTER: Arlinghaus R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3352494 | biostudies-literature | 2009 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature