freeline-96 - Flipbook - Page 162
Carp Chat
CA R P I N
R EC R EATIONA L
F I S H ER I ES SHOW
H I G H RESILIENCE TO
S T R ES S OF CA PTURE
Common carp which are reared in fish-farms, stocked into
recreational fisheries and then captured regularly by catch-andrelease angling show much lower chronic stress levels than their
wild counterparts that never see an angler’s hook, a new study
has found.
The findings, published in Plos One, indicate that although
angling capture can be a short-term stressful event, repeated
capture does not necessarily result in high levels of chronic
stress in these fish.
Although previous research by the team has revealed associations
between the amount of cortisol found in a fish’s scales – a sign
of chronic stress in fish - and the vulnerability of fish to angling
capture, this was study was the first to compare scale cortisol
levels of hatchery-reared (domesticated) carp against wild carp.
Professor Robert Britton of Bournemouth University led the
study, where scale cortisol data from domesticated carp in
five recreational fisheries was compared with data from five
wild populations. Although some wild carp had scale cortisol
FREELINE 18
