Recreational fishers’ awareness and adoption of strategies to minimise post-release mortality in demersal fish

The mortality of caught and released fish is a sustainability concern for many recreational fisheries worldwide. Factors associated with fishing increase mortality rates of released fish, including barotrauma, extended exposure to air and hooking injuries. Alongside traditional management tools (i.e., catch and effort controls), strategies to decrease the mortality of released fish are endorsed within fisheries in an attempt to lower total mortality. However, the uptake of these techniques by fishers and their subsequent role in fisheries sustainability is understudied. In this study, recreational fishers within Western Australia's West Coast Demersal Scalefish Fishery were surveyed to investigate the awareness and adoption rates of six release strategies employed to minimise post-release mortality (i.e., release weights, venting, circular hooks, slow retrieval, minimising time fish are onboard, and supportive handling practices). We found that a high proportion of fishers attempt to minimise post-release mortality by adopting one or more strategies (82%), but variable awareness and adoption rates are apparent across release strategies. High awareness did not translate to high adoption rates for some strategies (e.g., awareness and adoption rates of the release weight were 94% vs 32%, respectively, and for supportive handling practices 41% vs 84% respectively). We found that perceived strategy effectiveness, ease of use, fisher age and geographical region influenced strategy uptake by fishers. This information is useful for fisheries managers who can direct messaging for the use of strategies that may decrease the mortality of released fish, especially where post-release mortality is a major fishery concern.