Tristan Martin and his girlfriend Lilly Ortega of Miami, go fishing on their day off at Oleta River State Park, Thursday, Aug. 22, in North Miami Beach, Fla.
Pick a social media platform and a fishing-related hashtag, say #patroutfishing on Instagram.
It'll turn up thousands upon thousands of posts.
Anglers have long posed for photos with their latest and biggest catches, but the phenomenon of being able to pull out a smartphone and share your achievement globally is unique to the past 10 or 15 years.
It's something that's been on Travis Pantaleo's mind since the coronavirus pandemic drove so many of us into nature for socially isolated recreation -- and it was the focus of his master's research thesis in fisheries management at Oregon State University.
Wednesday night, he brought his look into "Fish Out of Water" to Lost Tavern Brewing in Hellertown, as part of the Watershed Coalition of the Lehigh Valley's Tap Talk series.
"What impact, if any, does the use of social media have on recreational angling from a catch-and-release or even a mortality perspective?" is the question he posed. "And the reason that this is important is because some of your most dedicated anglers will do everything that they absolutely can to make sure that a fish swims off. But there's still a 10% mortality assigned to any catch-and-release angling ... ."
Numerous managers of fisheries across the United States offer tips -- online, of course -- on how to practice safe catch and release. The intersection of the internet and fishing isn't necessarily a bad thing, Pantaleo said.
Anglers can visit the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission's GIS site for maps of trout streams; where-and-when details on the 4.4 million trout stocked this year in Pennsylvania, including 1.2 million stocked by cooperative nurseries that help raise trout for anglers to go out and catch; and more. Those who manage fishing can draw on information gleaned from social media to influence decision making on stocking and conservation, he said.
Pantaleo admits to taking photos of some of the fish he catches while out on Cooks Creek in Upper Bucks or other local steams.
But his research has shown the extra time to snap a shot can increase the risk to the fish.
"When you go to take a photo, the chances are the percentage and times that you're keeping that fish out of the water multiplies by 1.6," he cited. "So keeping a fish out for 30 seconds just became 45. Keeping a fish out of water for 60 seconds just became a minute and a half.
"And so it kind of extrapolates the possibility of harming that fish without even really thinking about it. And when you see a lot of photos online, they look pretty good. You know, if you're anything like me, if you go take a picture of a fish, you're rushing. Like for me it's quick, it's awful because the photo comes out really bad because I'm just trying to get it back in the water and I'm not a good photographer."
Pantaleo is a member of the Cooks Creek Watershed Association and a board member at the Watershed Coalition of the Lehigh Valley, a nonprofit organization that encompasses 13 waterway groups in all.
His research shows that the time a fish spends out of water, assuming it's being released, can cause serious damage.
"It's not too different from if you were to try to hold your breath under the water for 60 seconds or more," he said. "The only thing is where we would asphyxiate because we would take in too much water, fish kind of have the opposite: They have a large buildup of carbon dioxide. When they're reintroduced into the water, to put it simply, the oxygen moves through their body so fast that it causes cardiac issues."
That sudden exchange can kill a fish, or cause difficulty righting or balancing itself, or lead to reproductive problems, Pantaleo said, voicing particular concern for native populations of brook or brown trout.
"There can be injury to the fish," Pantaleo said. "So depending on how you hook it, if you hook a fish relatively deep inside of its throat with its gills, there's a good chance it's going to swim away bleeding and ultimately die from loss of blood. You can scrape it, it can get infected."
Some examples of best practices for catch-and-release fishing include using barbless hooks, going with a silicone or rubber-mesh net instead of nets with knots, and wetting hands or gloves to reduce harm to the protective slime covering the fish's skin.
Anglers are good partners in conservation, said Stefanie Green, who coordinates the Watershed Coalition of the Lehigh Valley's Tap Talk series. Rod and gun clubs promote coalition events. They organize stream cleanups. Pennsylvania's fishing license sales estimated at 782,989 in 2023-24 help protect native species, conserve the outdoors and enhance waterways, according to Fish and Boat.
Pantaleo cited examples of anglers calling others out on social media, over pics of fish that have been dropped or which are covered in dust or dirt.
"And on the opposite side of that, you have other forums where people are very encouraging of folks to go out and experience this type of experience for themselves," he told about 18 people gathered for Wednesday night's Tap Talk. "So it goes back to that idea that social media can both be a positive and a negative."
The Watershed Coalition started its Tap Talks in spring 2019 at Birthright Brewing Co. in Nazareth. They're held in conjunction with the Penn State Extension, whose master watershed steward coordinator for Lehigh and Northampton counties, Shannon Frankosky, was in attendance Wednesday.
The series grew out of visits to local businesses that use Lehigh Valley water, and the talks don't always take place at beer breweries. The members have held events at Portch Tea, a kombucha-tea maker in the Emmaus area; Taylor House Brewing Co. and Blocker's Coffeehouse in Catasauqua; Seven Sirens Brewing Co. in Bethlehem; and Black River Farms Vineyard & Winery in Lower Saucon Township.
"Give us something delicious with local water and we're there," said Green, who is president of the Bertsch-Hokendauqua-Catasauqua Watershed Association.
For more tips on safe catch-and-release fishing, including to keep both the fight and the fish's time out water as brief as possible, visit the websites of the National Park Service website or National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The Maine Department of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife is blunt in its recommendation: " Photos can be so stressful. SKIP SOCIAL MEDIA! But if you feel you must get a picture, prepare for taking photos with your fish safely under the water surface. When lifting the fish out of the water, do it for 5 second intervals or less. Try to get the shot (within reason), but return your fish to the water for a rest between attempts. Take it slow down below."
More tips from keepfishwet.org include making sure your camera is easily accessible and ready to use and being mindful of conditions where a photo simply isn't a good idea, like if the water is warm or the fish is deeply hooked.
Pennsylvania Fish and Boat also offers a video on "How to Handle Fish for Safe Catch and Release":