Abstract
AbstractMegafish mahseers popularly known as the ‘tiger of rivers’, are the dream catch of recreational anglers in India. The present study explored the Recreational Angling (RA) videos of five mahseer speciesTor khudree(deccan mahseer),T. putitora(golden mahseer),T. remadevii(humpback mahseer),T. mosal(mosal mahseer) andNeolissochilus hexagonolepis(chocolate mahseer) recorded from India and uploaded on the social media platform YouTube from January 2010 to October 2022. We did not come across any RA videos ofT. mosalandT. remadeviion YouTube hence further analyses were carried out on the remaining three focal species. No seasonality was observed in the frequency of RA videos uploaded on YouTube andT. khudreeattracted the highest number of views per video. Catch and Release (C&R), an ethical RA practice was noticeably low in the case ofN. hexagonolepis. The size of the catch was found to be positively associated with the social engagement received by the RA videos of all the three mahseer species focused. Angler and angling-related remarks and words associated with the emotion ‘trust’ dominated the comments received by the videos. The results are discussed in light of the trending discourses on developing social media data as a complementary tool for monitoring and managing RA and conserving fish.
Publisher
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory