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Internal clocks can tick very differently. While some people are most productive in the morning, others are only active later in the day or at night. This phenomenon is known in science and medicine as chronotype. In a comprehensive analysis of the activity patterns of wild fish, a research team involving the Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries (IGB) has shown that fish – carp, trout, zander, and others – also have individual early and late risers. The results were published in the journal Fish and Fisheries. 

Today on Earth Day, the 19 National Champions of the Frontiers Planet Prize, a globally significant research prize for sustainability, were announced. Robert Arlinghaus, Professor of Fisheries at the Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries (IGB) and the Humboldt Universität zu Berlin, and his team are recognized for their groundbreaking publication in Science on the effectiveness of habitat improvement on fish populations in lakes.

The brackish lagoons around the German island of Rügen in the southern Baltic Sea are known as outstanding fishing areas, especially for large pike. However, pike catches and catch sizes have been declining for several years.  There are many reasons for this: loss of spawning grounds, decline in nutrition, increased natural mortality due to cormorants and other natural predators, climate change and overfishing.

The Stifterverband has honoured two outstanding Leibniz researchers from Berlin with the ‘Research in Responsibility’ science award. IGB researcher Robert Arlinghaus shares the 40,000-euro prize with Lena Hipp from the WZB Berlin Social Science Center.

Conservation efforts have led to the recovery of pinnipeds populations worldwide after decades of intensive hunting and culls. However, this positive development has led to conflicts with fisheries, particularly small-scale fisheries, researchers have found.

Buying fish, sausage or meat saves you from breaking a social taboo in some industrialized nations, especially when hunting and fishing are conducted for recreation. In a perspective article in Nature Sustainability, a research team from the natural and social sciences and environmental philosophy adds a new perspective to the topic of "recreational use of wild animals". The hypothesis is that an emotionally intense interaction between hunters or anglers and wild animals can create a particularly strong sense of responsibility,

In thestudy, published in Nature Food, the research team estimates that recreational fishing in lakes and rivers accounts for more than eleven per cent of the annually reported catches in inland fisheries worldwide. The analyzed total consumption value of harvested fish is around 10 billion US dollars per year. Due to climate change and direct human impacts on freshwater ecosystems, the productivity of important fish species such as trout and salmon is declining, affecting the nutritional services offered by rivers and lakes.

IGB scientist Olga Lukyanova was honoured by the Gesellschaft Naturforschender Freunde zu Berlin for her master thesis.