Are Angling Based Non-Government Organizations Effective Communicators of Best Practices for Catch-and-Release?

Recreational catch-and-release angling is an important tool for managing fish stocks. As recreational fishing is often a culturally or community-based activity, many anglers trust local grassroots and other non-government organizations (NGOs) as a source of information regarding their angling practices. This study aimed to assess existing recreational angling NGO mission statements and Internet based content to address gaps between mention of conservation and available catch-and-release best practice guidelines. We reviewed over 200 NGO websites using six common search terms and evaluated the language used in mission statements and within the website for mention of conservation, education, or catch-and-release. Any posted guidelines for catch-and-release were compared against scientifically evaluated best practices. Our results show that < 12% of recreational fishing NGOs encouraged catch-and-release anywhere within their websites and almost none provided complete, accurate guidelines for best practices. These results suggest that there is a need for greater emphasis on catch-and-release best practices by angling based NGOs in order to project such guidelines to anglers and to encourage effective catch-and-release at the grassroots level and thus influence recreational fishery practices on a large scale.