Oceanic whitetip shark ( Carcharhinus longimanus ) is an important top predator in pelagic ecosystems currently classified as globally Critically Endangered by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. This species is incidentally caught by fisheries targeting highly migratory tunas and billfishes throughout the Indian Ocean. Understanding the temporal, spatial and environmental factors influencing the capture of...

The western and central Pacific Ocean supports the world's largest tuna fisheries. Since the 1990s, the purse‐seine fishery has increasingly fished in association with fish aggregating devices ( FAD s), which has increased catches of juvenile bigeye and yellowfin tunas and vulnerable bycatch species (e.g., sharks). This has raised concerns regarding the sustainability of these species’ populations and the supporting ecosystem,...

Recreational fishing is a popular sport and leisure activity in many countries worldwide. There has been growing interest by recreational fishing groups and researchers in the perceived physical and psychological health and social (or ‘biopsychosocial’) benefits of recreational fishing. However, quantifying the key subjective ‘human dimensions’ of fishing that satisfy both the needs of recreational fishing groups and fishery m...

Ecology Letters (2010) 13: 900–914 Abstract Expert knowledge in ecology is gaining momentum as a tool for conservation decision‐making where data are lacking. Yet, little information is available to help a researcher decide whether expert opinion is useful for their model, how an elicitation should be conducted, what the most relevant method for elicitation is and how this can be translated into prior distributions for analysi...

Obtaining reliable estimates of important parameters from recreational fisheries is problematic but critical for stock assessment and effective resource management. Sampling methodologies based on traditional design‐based sampling theory, is inadequate in obtaining representative catch and effort data, social or demographical characterization, or fisher behaviour from small hard‐to‐reach components within recreational fisherie...