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Recreational angling and spearfishing on social media: insights on harvesting patterns, social engagement and sentiments related to the distributional range shift of a marine invasive species

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Abstract

Fisheries are among the human activities that are most strongly affected by ongoing climate-related changes in the presence and abundance of fish species across the globe. The ecological and social repercussions of such changes for recreational fisheries are however still poorly understood. Here, we compare selected ecological and social dimensions of both recreational angling and spearfishing targeting the bluefish (Pomatomus saltatrix) in Italy. The bluefish has undergone a northward expansion in the region over the last 20–30 years, during which it reached new areas and increased in abundance. Using digital videos and their associated data published by both recreational anglers and spearfishers on YouTube we characterized ecological and social dimensions using a culturomics approach. Specifically, we focused on harvesting patterns, social engagement and sentiments related to the bluefish. Our study revealed four major results: (1) similar harvesting patterns (i.e., declared mass and seasonal upload patterns) related to videos by both recreational anglers and spearfishers; (2) higher social engagement (i.e., number of views and likes) for videos by recreational anglers than spearfishers; (3) differences in themes of discussion, with anglers being mainly interested in fishing strategy and gears and spearfishers being more interested in fishing actions shown on the videos; (4) positive and negative sentiments of both recreational anglers and spearfishers towards the invasiveness and aggressiveness of the species. The latter represents an interesting trade-off associated with recreational fishing of the bluefish: it is perceived as an invasive species, but it is also a valued target fish because its voracity contributes to the quality of the recreational fishing experience. Our study showcases the value of exploring social media and associated data to better understand the ecological and human dimensions of marine recreational fisheries in relation to distributional range shifts of species associated with climate change.

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Acknowledgements

VS is supported by a “Juan de la Cierva Incorporación” research fellowship (IJC2018-035389-I) granted by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation. RAC is currently supported by funding from the University of Helsinki and the KONE Foundation. MC acknowledges partial funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 869300 (FutureMares). VS and MC acknowledge the Spanish government through the “Severo Ochoa Centre of Excellence” accreditation to ICM-CSIC (#CEX2019-000928-S). RA is supported by the German Ministry of Education and Research (marEEshift: 01LC1826D and Aquatag 033W046A).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Marine Renewable Resources, Institute of Marine Sciences (ICM-CSIC), Passeig Marítim de la Barceloneta 37-49, 08003, Barcelona, Spain

    Valerio Sbragaglia, Lucía Espasandín & Marta Coll

  2. School of Biosciences and Veterinary Medicine, University of Camerino, Viale Circonvallazione 93-95, 62024, Matelica, Italy

    Salvatore Coco & Alberto Felici

  3. Helsinki Lab of Interdisciplinary Conservation Science (HELICS), Department of Geosciences and Geography, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland

    Ricardo A. Correia

  4. Department of Geosciences and Geography, Helsinki Institute for Sustainability Science (HELSUS), University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland

    Ricardo A. Correia

  5. DBIO and CESAM – Centre for Environmental and Marine Studies, University of Aveiro, Aveiro, Portugal

    Ricardo A. Correia

  6. Department of Biology and Ecology of Fishes, Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries, Müggelseedamm 310, 12587, Berlin, Germany

    Robert Arlinghaus

  7. Division of Integrative Fisheries Management, Department of Crop and Animal Sciences, Faculty of Life Sciences, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Philippstrasse 13, Haus 7, 10115, Berlin, Germany

    Robert Arlinghaus

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  1. Valerio Sbragaglia
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  2. Lucía Espasandín
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  3. Salvatore Coco
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  4. Alberto Felici
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  5. Ricardo A. Correia
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  6. Marta Coll
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  7. Robert Arlinghaus
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Contributions

VS conceived the study; VS performed the data mining with inputs by RAC; SC crossed checked the results and scored the content of comments; VS analysed the data, VS, RAC, RA interpreted the data, VS led the writing of the manuscript with inputs by all other co-authors. All authors gave final approval for publication.

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Correspondence to Valerio Sbragaglia.

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Sbragaglia, V., Espasandín, L., Coco, S. et al. Recreational angling and spearfishing on social media: insights on harvesting patterns, social engagement and sentiments related to the distributional range shift of a marine invasive species. Rev Fish Biol Fisheries 32, 687–700 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11160-022-09699-7

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