Known but not called by name

Recreational fishers' ecological knowledge of freshwater plants in Hungary

Bibliographic Data

ID5296988
AuthorsViktor Löki (0000-0002-2946-324X), Jenő Nagy (0000-0001-8434-4422), András Nagy (0000-0003-4311-0413), Dániel Babai (0000-0001-8531-6458), Zsolt Molnár (0000-0001-5454-4714), Balázs András Lukács, B Lukács (0000-0002-3163-1281)
Year2021
Volume17
Issue1
Pages63-63
Publication date2021-11-04
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1746-4269 • E-ISSN: 1746-4269
PublisherSpringer Science and Business Media LLC (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1186/s13002-021-00489-2
PMID34736491
OpenAlexW3197289679
LanguageEN
Citations received3
References cited52

BackgroundDocumenting local ecological knowledge (LEK) has recently become a topic of considerable interest. LEK can contribute to various areas of ecology, including habitat management and conservation biology. It has been recently revealed that recreational fishers' ecological knowledge (FEK) can also provide valuable information about different organisms and habitats, while recreational fishers' ecological knowledge is understudied in many aspects and regions of the world.MethodsWe aimed to record Hungarian recreational FEK on plant species related to freshwater habitats. Our research was conducted in three regularly fished water bodies in Hungary, namely Lake Velence, Keleti Main Canal, and Lake Látóképi, where a total of 72 interviews were conducted with recreational anglers. During interviews, 24 plant species occurring at freshwater habitats with common or sporadic distribution were shown to anglers as single species or in congeneric pairs. Miscellaneous plant-related knowledge of anglers was also collected.ResultsAnglers identified a total of 16 plant species. They used 45 botanical or folk names. An angler knew the name of 4.6 plants on average and recognized 7.4 other species without naming it. According to our detailed analysis, anglers were able to name or at least recognize those plant species which are somehow related to fishing activities, are salient, and/or common. Moreover, anglers at Lake Velence recognized less plant species; however, they also had less years of fishing experience compared to anglers of the other two locations.ConclusionWe found that recreational FEK exists even in the case of freshwater plants which are not the main focus of anglers. It is highly presumable that recreational fishers would be able to provide reliable ecologically related data for scientific research establishing future citizen science projects of nature conservation

Biodiversity · Biology · Fishery · Fishing · Geography · Habitat · Recreation · Fish Ecology and Management Studies · Species Distribution and Climate Change · Wildlife Ecology and Conservation · Ecology