Eel, cod and seatrout harvest in Danish recreational fishing during 2011

Marine recreational fishing is a popular outdoor leisure activity, yet the impact on the targeted stocks is often unidentified. In order to estimate 2011 cod, eel and seatrout harvest (fish caught and kept) in the Danish angling and passive gear fishing, two interview surveys were conducted in July 2011 and January 2012.

Recreational fishing was separated into anglers (with rod and reel) and passive gear fishing (fyke and gillnets). In 2011 a total of 157,762 anglers and 33,911 passive gear fishers had issued the annual license, which is compulsory if saltwater fishing is practiced. In total, it was estimated that 80 t [Relative standard error (RSE)=6%] eel, close to 1,300 t (RSE=5 %) cod and 400 t (RSE=5 %) seatrout (including freshwater catches) was harvested in the recreational fishery.

Eel is almost exclusively taken in the passive gear fykenet fishery and seatrout was mainly caught by anglers which accounted for 88 % of the total harvest. Present interview survey indicates that approximately 4.5 % of the total Danish cod yield (commercial landings plus recreational harvest) was taken in the recreational fishery.

There were, however, large differences between areas and especially in Kattegat and the Sound the recreational had a large share of the total yield accounting for 51 % and 34 %, respectively. Approximately 18 % of the total eel yield was taken by the recreational fishing. In the estimation, harvest taken by fishers without a legal license was also included.

This inclusion increased the estimated harvest with 17 % and 24 %, respectively for passive gear and angling