Wildlife Welfare

Freshwater Fish Angling Welfare

Catch-and-release angling raises welfare concerns about pain and injury from hooking, physiological stress from fighting, and recovery from the capture experience in freshwater fish.

Key Facts

Fish have nociceptors and show pain behaviours consistent with experiencing discomfort
Hook injuries cause tissue damage that persists after release
Exhaustion from fighting on a line compromises physiological recovery for several hours
Barbless hooks and wet hands reduce injury and stress during handling
Water temperature affects recovery time with warm water reducing recovery capacity

Welfare Considerations

Catch-and-release angling involves real welfare impacts on individual fish that anglers have an ethical responsibility to minimise. Best practice techniques including barbless hooks, minimising air exposure, and avoiding warm-water fishing significantly reduce welfare impacts without eliminating the activity.

What You Can Do

Use barbless hooks to reduce fish injury during catch-and-release fishing
Keep fish in water as much as possible during unhooking and photography
Avoid catch-and-release fishing in warm water when fish recovery is compromised