Research trends and future perspectives of recreational fisheries in South America

Abstract

Recreational fishing (RF) is a popular activity worldwide, which has the potential of providing social, cultural, food, economic, and environmental benefits, but may produce negative impacts on the ecosystems. In South America, RF is an important activity, which is developed in continental and coastal-marine ecosystems showing a growing trend in participation rates and catches. The aim of this study is to review current research trends in RF in South America, analyzing the main topics addressed in peer-reviewed papers. A systematic search addressing recreational fishing in the region was performed through three web scientific search engines, including publications from 1995 to 2020. From each selected article, we extracted the title, authors, year of the publication, country where the research was conducted, and ecosystem (i.e. continental or coastal-marine). Articles were categorized in four types: ?Environmental Issues?, ?Target Species?, ?Management?, and ?Socioeconomic?. These categories were also divided into subcategories. A total of 135 articles were found and the number of articles has increased to the present. ?Target Species? articles showed a peak during 2003?2008 and was constant until 2020, while ?Socioeconomic? showed an increase during the 2009?2014 period. The number of articles addressing ?Environmental Issues? and ?Management? steadily increased throughout the study period. Fifty-three percent of articles was carried out in continental ecosystems, 44 % in coastal-marine ecosystems, and 3 % in both. The most frequent category was ?Target Species?. There was no association between the distribution of categories and the ecosystems where the research was performed. The largest number of studies was conducted in Brazil. The present study is the first one systematically reviewing and characterizing articles addressing RFs in South America. Main gaps of knowledge in RF and future perspectives of research are discussed.