Inland recreational fisheries contribute nutritional benefits and economic value but are vulnerable to climate change

ABSTRACT Inland recreational fishing is primarily considered a leisure-driven activity in freshwaters, yet its harvest can contribute to food systems. Here we estimate that the harvest from

inland recreational fishing equates to just over one-tenth of all reported inland fisheries catch globally. The estimated total consumptive use value of inland recreational fish destined for

human consumption may reach US$9.95 billion annually. We identify Austria, Canada, Germany and Slovakia as countries above the third quantile for nutrition, economic value and climate

vulnerability. These results have important implications for populations dependent on inland recreational fishing for food. Our findings can inform climate adaptation planning for inland

recreational fisheries, particularly those not currently managed as food fisheries. Access through your institution Buy or subscribe This is a preview of subscription content, access via

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institutional subscriptions * Read our FAQs * Contact customer support SIMILAR CONTENT BEING VIEWED BY OTHERS GLOBAL DATASET OF SPECIES-SPECIFIC INLAND RECREATIONAL FISHERIES HARVEST FOR

CONSUMPTION Article Open access 10 August 2022 ECOSYSTEM-BASED FISHERIES MANAGEMENT FORESTALLS CLIMATE-DRIVEN COLLAPSE Article Open access 11 September 2020 FISHING FOR SUBSISTENCE

CONSTITUTES A LIVELIHOOD SAFETY NET FOR POPULATIONS DEPENDENT ON AQUATIC FOODS AROUND THE WORLD Article Open access 25 September 2023 DATA AVAILABILITY The raw and formatted datasets and

accompanying metadata for the species-specific inland recreational fisheries harvest estimates for consumption as well as the nutrition, economic value and climate vulnerability data are

freely available to the public, supported by the US Geological Survey National Climate Adaptation Science Center (https://doi.org/10.5066/P9904C3R (ref. 40) and

https://doi.org/10.5066/P9WO91SZ (ref. 15), respectively). The Aquatic Foods Composition Database is freely available (https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/KI0NYM (ref. 41)), and the GND is available

upon request. The data to support the currency conversions used in this study are available from Bloomberg. Restrictions apply to the availability of these data, which were used under

license for this study. Data are available with the permission of Bloomberg (https://bba.bloomberg.net/). Climate change data from Nyboer et al.20 are available through the Open Science

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composition database. _Harvard Dataverse, V3, UNF:6:G2NfnhHcpldBlD6+PqPVVw== [fileUNF]_ https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/KI0NYM (2021). Download references ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS We thank data

providers for their generosity with their time in contributing to this research and the InFish network (http://infish.org/) for assistance in connecting us with appropriate data providers.

In addition to the contributors detailed in Embke et al.14, the following contacts provided additional data: O. Badunenko, M. Bavinck, S. Berg, I. Chatziantoniou, C. Chen, A. Froschauer, K.

Gorski, Ø. Hermansen, F. I. Nworie, E. Karimov, T. Marković, A. Martinovska-Stojcheska, J. M. Q. Montiel, N. Novakov, A. Novoa, C. Rodriguez Da Costa Doria, R. Sagitova, P. Shipkov and A.

Stenfors. We thank S. Sethi (Brooklyn College) for conducting an internal review of this paper for the US Geological Survey. This work received no dedicated funding. Any use of trade, firm

or product names is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the US Government. AUTHOR INFORMATION Author notes * Deceased: Olaf L. F. Weyl. AUTHORS AND AFFILIATIONS *

National Climate Adaptation Science Center, United States Geological Survey, Reston, VA, USA Abigail J. Lynch & T. Douglas Beard Jr. * Midwest Climate Adaptation Science Center, United

States Geological Survey, St. Paul, MN, USA Holly S. Embke * Canadian Centre for Evidence-Based Conservation, Department of Biology and Institute of Environmental and Interdisciplinary

Science, Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada Elizabeth A. Nyboer & Steven J. Cooke * Department of Fish and Wildlife Conservation, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State

University, Blacksburg, VA, USA Elizabeth A. Nyboer * Centre for Blue Governance, University of Portsmouth, Portsmouth, UK Louisa E. Wood & Andy Thorpe * The Nature Conservancy, London,

UK Sui C. Phang * Department of Nutrition, Department of Environmental Health, Department of Global Health and Population, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA Daniel

F. Viana & Christopher D. Golden * Southern Indian Ocean Fisheries Agreement (SIOFA/APSOI), Saint-Denis, France Marco Milardi * Department of Fish Biology, Fisheries and Aquaculture,

Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries, Berlin, Germany Robert Arlinghaus * Division of Integrative Fisheries Management, Faculty of Life Sciences, Humboldt-Universität

zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany Robert Arlinghaus * Institute of Environmental Research and Engineering, National University of San Martin-CONICET, Buenos Aires, Argentina Claudio Baigun *

International Fisheries Institute, University of Hull, Hull, UK Ian G. Cowx * Applied Aquatic Ecology, Arthur Rylah Institute for Environmental Research, Department of Energy, Environment

and Climate Action, Heidelberg, Victoria, Australia John D. Koehn * Gulbali Institute for Agriculture, Water and Environment, Charles Sturt University, Albury, New South Wales, Australia

John D. Koehn * Institute for Evaluations and Social Analyses (INESAN), Prague, Czech Republic Roman Lyach * Department of Ichthyology and Fisheries Science, Rhodes University, Makhanda,

South Africa Warren Potts * South African Institute for Aquatic Biodiversity, Makhanda, South Africa Warren Potts & Olaf L. F. Weyl * Department of Environmental Science and Policy,

George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, USA Ashley M. Robertson * Pure Harvest Smart Farms, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates Josef Schmidhuber Authors * Abigail J. Lynch View author

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You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Olaf L. F. Weyl View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar CONTRIBUTIONS A.J.L., A.T.,

T.D.B., C.B., S.J.C., I.G.C. and O.L.F.W. jointly conceptualized the project. A.J.L., H.S.E., E.A.N., L.E.W., A.T., S.C.P., D.F.V., C.D.G., M.M. and A.M.R. assembled and analysed the data.

All authors, with the exception of O.L.F.W., discussed the results and implications and commented on the paper at all stages. CORRESPONDING AUTHOR Correspondence to Abigail J. Lynch. ETHICS

DECLARATIONS COMPETING INTERESTS The authors declare no competing interests. PEER REVIEW PEER REVIEW INFORMATION _Nature Food_ thanks Kieran Hyder, M. Aaron MacNeil and the other, anonymous,

reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION PUBLISHER’S NOTE Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published

maps and institutional affiliations. EXTENDED DATA EXTENDED DATA FIG. 1 UNIVARIATE MAPS OF ANALYZED METRICS. Univariate maps showing: A - total consumption (kg per fisher); B - total

consumptive use value (TCUV in USD) per recreational fisher as a share of 2021 gross domestic product (GDP) per capita; C - climate vulnerability (summed, weighted by proportions of species

consumption (using scenario Representative Concentration Pathway [RCP]4.5, 2075 projection) and D - average nutritional contribution. EXTENDED DATA FIG. 2 RELATIVE CONTRIBUTION OF

MICRONUTRIENTS FROM RECREATIONAL INLAND FISH. Comparison of the contribution of recreational inland fish to micronutrients (A - calcium, B - omega-3 long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids

docosahexaenoic acid and eicosapentaenoic acid [DHA + EPA], C - iron, D - protein, E - vitamin B12 [Vit B12], and F - zinc) as a proportion (%) of estimated national-level average per capita

consumption from aquatic foods. EXTENDED DATA FIG. 3 PREVALENCE OF INADEQUATE MICRONUTRIENT INTAKE. Prevalence of inadequate micronutrient intake across all assessed nutrients and countries

based on previously published study (Golden et al.4). Prevalence of inadequate intake was calculated using the summary exposure values, which estimates the population-level risk related to

diets by comparing intake distributions with average requirements. Estimated prevalence of inadequate intake ranges from 0% (no risk) to full population-level risk (100%). EXTENDED DATA FIG.

4 TOTAL CONSUMPTIVE USE VALUE. Comparison of A - total consumptive use value (TCUV in USD), B - TCUV per recreational inland fisher, C - TCUV per fisher corrected for gross domestic product

(GDP), and D - TCUV per fisher corrected for GDP per capita corrected for purchasing power parity (PPP). EXTENDED DATA FIG. 5 CLIMATE VULNERABILITY OF CONSUMED INLAND RECREATIONAL FISH.

Comparison of climate vulnerability of consumed inland recreational fish (weighted by proportion consumed) across four vulnerability scenarios (A - Representative Concentration Pathway

[RCP]4.5, 2030; B - RCP8.5, 2030; C - RCP4.5 2075; D - RCP8.5, 2075). SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION REPORTING SUMMARY RIGHTS AND PERMISSIONS Reprints and permissions ABOUT THIS ARTICLE CITE THIS

ARTICLE Lynch, A.J., Embke, H.S., Nyboer, E.A. _et al._ Inland recreational fisheries contribute nutritional benefits and economic value but are vulnerable to climate change. _Nat Food_ 5,

433–443 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-024-00961-8 Download citation * Received: 28 April 2023 * Accepted: 12 March 2024 * Published: 13 May 2024 * Issue Date: May 2024 * DOI:

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