Although there is still some debate regarding whether fish have the capacity to feel pain, recent scientific research seems to support the notion that fish can indeed suffer. However, the continued scientific discourse has led to questions regarding how members of the public perceive issues of pain and welfare in fish. A questionnaire was developed and randomly distributed to 700 members of the general public in New Zealand. Questionnaires gathered basic demographic information, information regarding respondents’ participation in and opinions on angling practice, and opinions about fish welfare and pain. The response rate was 62.4% (437/700). The primary aim of the study was to assess public concerns for the impact of catch-and-release angling (CRA) on the welfare of fish. Most respondents indicated a belief that fish are capable of feeling some pain although older respondents scored the capacity of fish to feel pain lower than younger respondents. Likewise, most respondents believed that CRA causes pain and compromises survival in fish. Principle Component Analysis identified two major components within responses. These were: i) importance placed on good fishing techniques; and ii) concern for pain and survival of fish. Female respondents showed more concern about angling practices and their impact on pain and survival of fish than male respondents. Respondents who participate in CRA and considered it acceptable showed less concern for pain and survival in fish than both respondents who do not participate and those who considered CRA unacceptable. The majority of respondents considered angling an acceptable pastime (65%; 284/435) but also indicated support for the introduction of guidelines and regulations to improve fish welfare in the future (76.4%; 334/434). Those respondents that did not believe regulations were necessary provided statistically lower importance scores for both pain and survival in fish and good angling practices than respondents that did. Education about good angling practices may provide the best route by which fish welfare can be improved.

Recreational fisheries are the dominant or sole user of many coastal and most inland fish stocks in industrialized societies. Recreational angling can negatively affect fish populations, but appropriate management approaches to address these impacts are often lacking. Overall, privately-governed European recreational fisheries systems offer suitable conditions to reconcile resource use with resource conservation because access restriction is possible, decision-making structures are simple and management scales are small. This increases the hope that the race to fish may be less pronounced than in open-access commercial fisheries. To achieve harmony between use and conservation values, a thorough understanding of the human dimension is paramount, yet approaches including this are underrepresented in contemporary recreational fisheries science and management. Based on theoretical considerations, literature review and personal experiences, this paper presents key human obstacles to the reconciliation of recreational fishery resource use and resource conservation, with emphasis on private fishing rights regimes of central Europe. Nine obstacles are identified: (1) lack of social priority; (2) lack of integrated approaches; (3) lack of cooperative institutional linkages; (4) lack of systems thinking; (5) lack of research and monitoring; (6) lack of shared values and dominance of stereotyped perceptions; (7) lack of consideration for regional fish-angler dynamics; (8) lack of objective communication of scientific findings; and (9) lack of critical self-reflection among individual anglers. Potential solutions to overcome the identified constraints briefly discussed include: (1) evaluation of the socioeconomic benefits of angling; (2) rehabilitation of ecosystem structure and function on larger scales; (3) facilitation of structured cooperation between stakeholders and management units; (4) application of complex systems approach; (5) increased funding for long-term monitoring; (6) fostering of common values of different stake-holders; (7) active adaptive management of angling effort on regional scales; (8) intensified communication of research findings; and (9) conviction of anglers to meet personal targets by more restrictive regulations. Increasing research and management efforts related to the social component of recreational fisheries will improve reconciliation of resource use and resource conservation in traditional recreational fisheries management. It is a matter of societal values whether it is judged necessary to do so on a broader scale.