The World's Forgotten Fishes - 28

5. FISHING FOR FUN... IS BIG BUSINESS

" EARLIER OUR GOAL WAS TO KILL THE FISH.
BUT AFTER WORKING IN THE ANGLING CAMPS, WE
REALISE IT IS BETTER FOR THE COMMUNITY TO
KEEP THEM ALIVE. WE SAW THE BENEFIT. "
CHEMBA, ANGLING GUIDE ON INDIA'S CAUVERY RIVER
rare to find one longer than 2m - but that's
still huge enough to make it an irresistible
draw for freshwater anglers. And their fees
help to sustain communities, protect their
heritage, and strengthen the governance,
management and conservation of their
traditional territories. It is certainly a more
sustainable alternative than mercury-laced
gold mining or commercial logging49.

Bull trout in Roaring River, USA

©Freshwaters Illustrated

The angling industry relies on healthy
freshwater ecosystems to support thriving
populations of fish, from South Africa's
yellowfish to Australia's Murray cod and
Europe's barbel. Healthy freshwater
environments also offer a greater and more
diverse fishing challenge - and a relaxing
place to fish.
river guardians, incentivised to protect
the mahseer and their lucrative new
income stream. But the role of anglers in
conserving the hump-backed mahseer
goes beyond economics. In 2015, a team
of international scientists analysed the
detailed catch-log books kept by angling
camps, which revealed that the endemic
mahseer population was in perilous decline
- evidence that supported the formal
recognition of the hump-backed mahseer
as a separate species and its subsequent
classification as Critically Endangered
on the IUCN Red List. If it had not been
for anglers, this freshwater mega-fish
may have gone extinct without ever being
recognised as a valid species. Thankfully,
there is now an international multistakeholder effort to bring the species back
from the brink of extinction47.

Or take Japan's highly prized miyabe
charr, a subspecies endemic to Lake
Shikaribetsu. Back in the 1970s, too many
anglers and too little management led to
a collapse in numbers. Fortunately, this
spurred concerted action and numbers of
miyabe charr are now healthy again, with
anglers flooding in from all over Japan to
fish the lake, boosting the local economy
and providing a long-term lifeline for the
species48.
Meanwhile, some communities, like
the Rewa community in the Amazon in
Guyana, have been capitalising on the
presence of the arapaima, the world's
largest scaled freshwater fish, to attract
tourist dollars by investing in recreational
fishing operations. While the jungle
giant can grow up to 3m, overfishing and
habitat destruction mean that it's now

Indeed, a less appreciated benefit of angling
is the impact it has on human wellbeing.
Just being out in nature, listening to the
soothing sounds of water and watching
your fishing line bob up and down has
been found to alleviate stress. In the
USA, angling is used as a rehabilitation
therapy by psychologists, counsellors, and
physical therapists. The US Veterans Health
Administration has adopted fly fishing as
a recreational therapy for injured military
veterans because it is a calming, repetitive
and low-impact way to help them regain
strength. In England, angling has been used
as an 'added value' social, environmental
and therapeutic activity to help to overcome
social problems and aid development of
disadvantaged young people.
This is not to say that the practice
of recreational fishing is all smooth
sailing: there are potential risks as well

" From the point of view of a biologist and angler, seeing large predatory fish is a sign that
this lake, this river, is healthy. If they're not there, the water is in trouble, and if the water's in
trouble, well, I tell you that we are also in big trouble. I've been fishing for over 50 years now...
and what has shocked me really is that even in remote places it's very hard to find those fish.
The decline of big fish is happening right in front of us, and this is often because of
uncontrolled removal of fish, which has a very rapid effect on a healthy river.
Jeremy Wade, Angler, biologist and TV presenter
The World's Forgotten Fishes page 28

The World's Forgotten Fishes

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