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The Delphi method was used to gather assessments from 93 experts about drivers of future angling participation by locals and tourist anglers in Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden. The main drivers of future angling participation related to habitat and fish populations, and access to and information about fishing. For Norway and Finland, the predicted future decline in local angler numbers was consistent with a life-cycle model of recreational fisheries, while the anticipated increase for the three other countries contradicted the model. For tourist anglers, growth was expected for both domestic and foreign tourists. Long-term and societal drivers, such as urbanization, sociocultural changes, and climate change were not seen as strong drivers, and may be considered out of reach by managers, but should be included with information and conservation drivers in angler recruitment and retention strategies.

The successful management of recreational fisheries must balance ecological, and social goals; select from and implement a range of management tools; operate under often complex governance structures; and contend with diverse human stakeholders’ expectations, desires, and actual behaviour in response to management activities. This complexity also means that there are many knowledge and research gaps regarding the information needed to meet the requirements of specific fisheries. This thesis explores Swedish recreational fisheries as social-ecological systems to help close these gaps, and improve their future management.

The sea trout (Salmo trutta) fishery around the island of Gotland provides context for investigating the human and ecological dimensions of catch-and-release (C&R), and stock level connections between angler expectations, catches, and spawning returns. This case study first identifies key motivations to retain or release sea trout of legal size, and factors anglers think are important for successful C&R. Then determines which angler-related, fish-related, or environmental factors impact stress levels and injuries for sea trout. Further, it identifies the potential for small changes in anglers harvest preferences to significantly impact mortality rates for an important segment of the spawning population. Taken together these outcomes identify knowledge and behavioural gaps that influence the successful application of C&R in this fishery, and that could affect the achievement of fishery management goals.

Several opportunities to improve the transfer of information between stakeholder groups in Swedish recreational fisheries are illuminated through an assessment of how best practices for C&R are communicated to anglers, and an evaluation of potential biases generated when collecting data through angler surveys. Communication from freshwater fishery managers to fishing license buyers is deficient in the quality and quantity of information on best practices for C&R. In addition, this is notably poorer for certain fisheries and target species that have very high rates of C&R. In the opposite direction, the collection of information from anglers is also challenging, as common sampling techniques and the grouping of survey responses in recreational fisheries can introduce significant biases that impact how data can be interpreted. These include psychological dimensions of fishing experiences that connect angler motivations and behaviours to fishery management structures.

This thesis contributes to the knowledge and discussion about sustainably managing recreational fisheries, but the methods to apply this information to existing governance structures and induce positive behavioural change in diverse populations of anglers require further development.

Sustainable management of recreational fisheries requires balancing angler attitudes and behaviour with fisheries' biological potential. Herein, we investigated the balance in the sea-run brown trout (Salmo trutta) fishery around the Swedish island of Gotland using data collected through a creel survey, test fishing, and spawning returns to selected streams. Anglers accurately anticipated catches of large fish but underestimated the role of natural reproduction in supporting the stock. Female sea trout entering spawning streams and post-spawn sea trout caught on the coast were significantly larger than spawning males and non-spawned fish, and were particularly important for the fishery. Larger sea trout also faced a higher level of harvest pressure than other sizes. Small changes to angler preferences, harvest rates, or regulations could significantly influence characteristics and sustainability of this fishery. The scale and direction of these changes merit further investigation.

The topic of animal ethics has advanced in tourism studies since its inception in 2000, based on a diverse range of studies on species involvement, types of uses and contexts, level of engagement, states of animals, and theoretical perspectives. While there is still considerable scope to amplify research on animal-based tourism, a gap exists in tourism pedagogy amidst the field’s emphasis on a new expanding consciousness platform. We review the depth of existing scholarship on animal ethics in tourism and develop an agenda for advancing animal ethics pedagogy for the future. Our intent is to issue a call to action for curriculum committees, programme administrators, and educators to recognise and act on this critical moral domain in tourism education.

Catch-and-release (C&R) is a popular management tool that can support sustainable development of recreational fisheries, if anglers adopt scientifically informed “best practices.” However, although the role of best practices is widely established in the academic literature, this knowledge is not always disseminated to anglers. In this paper, we investigated if and to what extent local management organizations provided best practice information to anglers. Based on a sample of 331 Swedish organizations, we reviewed the websites through which these organizations sold fishing licenses. Our review demonstrated widespread use of C&R as a management tool yet a general lack of best practice information. Among the small fraction of organizations that mentioned best practices, most mentioned only a single practice, with little consistency among practices that received attention. In addition, best practice information was particularly lacking for pike (Esox Lucius) and perch (Perca fluviatilis), which are by far the most landed and released species nationally. We discovered major knowledge deficiencies that provide insights about where and how to focus efforts for improving best practice information, in the context of local recreational fisheries management.

This study investigated the biophysical responses of sea run brown trout Salmo trutta to catch-and-release in the coastal fishery around Gotland, Sweden. It used information recorded on individual angled S. trutta (n = 162), including fight time, handling time, total air exposure time, injury, bleeding, fish length, body condition, spawning status, water temperature, hook location and difficulty of hook removal. Reflex action mortality predictors (equilibrium, operculum beats, tail grab response, body flex response and vestibular-ocular response), tests of blood glucose and lactate, and observation of hooking injury were used to measure the relative impact of the angling event on the fish's physical state and stress experienced. The results of this study suggest low rates of post-release mortality and generally limited stress responses to angling events, and relatively high post-release survival supported by the recapture of many tagged S. trutta. However, a number of scenarios were identified in which stress responses are likely to be compounded and where anglers should take additional action to reduce sublethal physiological disturbances and the risk of delayed mortality. Particular care should be taken to limit cumulative total air exposure to <10 s, and to reduce handling time and risk of additional injury in angling events with extended fight times, when water temperatures >10 degrees C, or where S. trutta show evidence of being physically compromised by injury or having recently spawned. The results also indicate the importance of using appropriately sized single hooks rather than larger treble hooks to reduce hooking injury and handling time during unhooking.

The wide variety of perspectives and actions of individual anglers contribute greatly to success or failure when adopting and implementing fisheries management tools. Catch-and-release (C&R) is one such tool where success is influenced by both variation in human factors, but also species and fishery specific characteristics. In this study, an intercept survey of 94 sea trout anglers in a C&R dominated fishery on the Swedish island of Gotland investigated motivations to release or retain catches, self-assessment of anglers' own ability to release fish, and their rating of the importance of various factors influencing the successful outcomes of C&R. Retention of catches was most strongly motivated by situations where anglers deemed the fish unlikely to survive, however more than half of anglers acknowledged being unaware of delayed mortality in released fish. The spawning status of an individual fish was the primary motivation for release, particularly among anglers that prefer to keep at least some of their catches. The roles of water temperature, using single, and barbless hooks were scored as significantly less important than other components contributing to the success of a release. Anglers that gave a favourable rating to their ability to release sea trout also gave greater importance to various factors influencing the success of release, reported higher catch per unit effort, and released a greater proportion of their catches. These findings are discussed in the context of bridging knowledge and behavioural gaps around best practices for C&R in this fishery.

Recreational fishing activities have the potential to negatively affect fish populations worldwide, but data about fishing pressure is lacking in many countries. The Swedish government anticipates tackling this problem by implementing a national catch reporting program. Through an online survey among members of the Swedish Anglers Association (±60.000 members), this study gathers the attitudes and preferences of Swedish anglers (n = 910) through a variety of statements relating to the potential introduction of a catch reporting program and investigates the effects of different social factors (consumptive orientation, motivations to fish, centrality to life and environmental attitude) on these attitudes and preferences. The results reveal that support for a potential catch reporting program was high for most anglers. Significant positive relationships were found between support for a catch reporting program and the sense of responsibility towards conservation issues, the desire to catch big fish and experiencing the environment as a motivation to fish. On the other hand, the desire to keep fish and catch large numbers of fish had a significant negative relationship with catch reporting support. Support for a mandatory catch reporting program increased with age, education level, income and years of fishing experience. Despite the generally positive attitude towards a potential catch reporting program, consumptive orientation, motivations to fish, environmental attitude and demographic characteristics were proven to play an important role in the anglers’ preferences towards catch reporting, and should not be overlooked when designing such a program. Our study shows that investigation of the social composition of an angler population is vital to obtain a better understanding of the diversity of attitudes and preferences towards recreational fisheries management, which can in turn facilitate implementation of management measures, such as catch reporting programs. Since this study focused only on members of the national angling association, who are likely more avid than non-members, additional research is needed to obtain results that are more representative of the total Swedish angler population.