World Recreational Fishing Conference

Mahseer Trust Director of Research and International Relations, Adrian Pinder, has just returned from the eighth World Recreational Fishing Conference, where he presented current research on the effects of stocking on endemic mahseer populations and the performance of recreational fisheries in India. The conference attracted 396 delegates from 21 different countries to centralise recreational fishing expertise over a four day event.

Mahseer Trust Director of Research and International Relations, Adrian Pinder, presented at the World Recreational Fishing Conference in Victoria BC, Canada

Talks covered both marine and freshwater fisheries and were spread across six parallel sessions, with specialist symposia dedicated to:

• Understanding angler behaviour through human dimensions and economic research

• Use and challenges of catch-and-release in recreational fisheries

• Recreational anglers driving fish habitat outcome

After learning about the recovery and population monitoring of the Fraser River’s white sturgeon stocks, Adrian and colleagues from Sweden and Canada made good use of their last day by participating in this impressively managed recreational fishery and were successful in catching and safely releasing a giant 300lb sturgeon!

It wasn’t all talk – Adrian and colleagues managed to catch this giant 300lb sturgeon, which was safely released back into the Fraser River