An assessment of recreational spearfishing along Turkish coasts using social media

Abstract

Data shared by recreational fishers can provide valuable information for scientists and fishery managers to better understand recreational fishing activities, where data collection is difficult and expensive. This study examines recreational spearfishing along Turkish coastal waters using YouTube, a social media content-sharing platform, in terms of catch composition and social participation. For this purpose, a total of 749 YouTube videos uploaded with weight information between 2011 and 2022 were analyzed. Thirty-four species were identified in the examined videos and three species constituted half of the uploaded videos. These species were common dentex (Dentex dentex; 21.90%), European seabass (Dicentrarchus labrax; 18.02%), and greater amberjack (Seriola dumerili; 10.55%), respectively. The majority of spearfishing videos were uploaded from the Aegean Sea (66.62%). A total catch amount was determined to be 4795.37 kg in the examined videos. Furthermore, the most captured species in terms of weight were determined as greater amberjack (35.83%), common dentex (12.02%), and European seabass (11.22%), respectively. Results showed that greater amberjack, European seabass, and common dentex species received the most likes and views from users. In addition, there was a significant positive relationship between the declared weight and number of views and likes (P < 0.05). Finally, it was discussed how social media platforms such as YouTube can provide valuable complementary data for fisheries management and the key factors that should be taken into account in this context.