The more time you spend fishing, the better it is for your mental health.
A significant New Zealand study of nearly 1,900 anglers, the largest of its kind globally, has shown that fishing can significantly boost wellbeing and mental health.
The study published in the international journal Leisure Sciences found active anglers were 52 percent less likely to report psychological distress or thoughts of
The best part? The more time you spend fishing, the better it is for your mental health.
The research initiated by Southland Fish & Game officer Cohen Stewart (pictured) in collaboration with Dr Shyamala
Read more here: Media release: World’s largest angling mental health study reveals remarkable benefits — Fish & Game
Of course it’s great. Quotes like “A bad day of fishing is better than a good day at work.” have been around for yonks.
Undoubtedly there’s a deeper meaning to fishing. Notable people have testified to it. Henry David Thoreau suggested that for many, fishing is not about catching fish, but just going fishing.
Herbert Hoover connected fishing to cleansing one’s soul with nature, and John Buchan saw it as a pursuit offering perpetual hope.
Poet Ted Hughes noted that fishing allows for total immersion and a connection with the living world.
There is another side to this.
In common with many other senior anglers, the destruction/degradation of our recreational fisheries can have a negative effect on mental health.
In Canterbury this is especially apparent. Many of use who experienced the outstanding river mouth fisheries that until quite recently were acknowledged by international and national anglers as outstanding, now make rare visits to a place where we now experience sadness, anger, and despair.
I love Roderick Haig-Brown’s explanation , “I still don’t know why I fish or why other men fish, except that we like it and it makes us think and feel. But I do know that if it were not for the strong, quick life of rivers, for their sparkle in the sunshine, for their cold greyness in the rain, and the feel of them about my legs as I set my feet down hard on rocks or sand or gravel, I should fish less often. Perhaps fishing is, for me, only an excuse to be near rivers.”
Someone once said that the best thing about fishing is the beautiful places it takes you to that you wouldn’t have seen otherwise. Seems very sensible to me.
It’s ironic that Fish and Game is pushing the wellbeing factor we get from fishing but not fighting the move to gut the organisation’s ability to defend the environment. So for those of us for whom fishing is a way of life, seeing the rape and pillage Dirty Dairy has committed on our rivers totally undermines our sense of wellbeing. It’s like seeing your family church burn down.
Yes you need clean, flowing rivers and trout. Fish and Game have been in denial about the decline. Here in North Canterbury 25 years ago, Fish and Game’s environment officer Wayne McCallum warned of a crisis with declining lowland river fisheries. His report gathered dust. Inertia was to the fore.
This research really validates what many of us have known intuitively – that time on the water is therapeutic. The dose-response finding is particularly compelling: active anglers were 52% less likely to report moderate-to-severe psychological distress and thoughts of self-harm Angling linked to better wellbeing and the more you fish, the better the outcomes.
However, the point raised about environmental degradation creating the opposite effect is crucial. There’s a bitter irony in celebrating fishing’s mental health benefits while watching the very places that provide those benefits deteriorate. For those of us who’ve witnessed the decline of once-outstanding fisheries, visiting degraded waters can trigger genuine grief and anger rather than peace and restoration. It’s like being prescribed exercise but having the gym burned down.
The challenge now is ensuring Fish & Game and policymakers connect these dots – that protecting our waterways isn’t just about fish populations, it’s about safeguarding a proven mental health resource for thousands of Kiwis.
Fantastic to see rigorous research backing what anglers have long understood. The study found specific factors that enhanced mental health outcomes, including wading in water, fishing with companions, and walking more than 5km while fishing Angling linked to better wellbeing | Otago Daily Times Online News. What’s remarkable is that the benefits remained consistent regardless of whether you were fishing in urban, modified, rural, or backcountry environments Angling linked to better wellbeing – making this accessible to virtually all anglers.
The ‘dose-response relationship’ is particularly interesting from a public health perspective. As researcher Cohen Stewart noted, the more you fish, the better your mental health outcomes. This kind of evidence could support nature-based interventions alongside traditional mental health treatments.
The tragic irony here is impossible to ignore. We now have world-leading evidence that fishing significantly improves mental health, yet the degradation of our fisheries – particularly in Canterbury – is actively undermining that benefit for long-time anglers.
As Roderick Haig-Brown wrote, fishing is about the ‘strong, quick life of rivers’ and ‘their sparkle in the sunshine.’ But what happens when those rivers lose their sparkle? When the places that once restored us now fill us with sadness and despair?
The study shows fishing can reduce psychological distress by 52%, but no amount of research can fix the distress caused by watching dairy farming destroy the very waters that provide these benefits. We need Fish & Game and regional councils to treat water quality not just as an environmental issue, but as a mental health crisis.
Comparing International Studies
The New Zealand study IS actually one of the most authoritative:
The NZ study (2025) – Published in Leisure Sciences, nearly 1,900 participants, used validated clinical assessment tools, found 52% reduction in psychological distress
Described as internationally significant and the largest of its kind globally World’s largest fishing mental health study reveals remarkable benefits – Fishing World Australia
UK Study by Anglia Ruskin University (2023) – Published in the peer-reviewed journal Epidemiologia in July 2023 Mental Health and Recreational Angling in UK Adult Males: A Cross-Sectional Study – PMC, surveyed 1,752 UK adult males
Led by Professor Lee Smith (ranked in top 1% of researchers globally)
Found anglers had significantly lower rates of anxiety disorder (16.5% vs 26.4%), suicide attempts (7.5% vs 13.2%), and self-harm (10.4% vs 20.6%) compared to non-anglers Fishing could ease severe mental health issues – survey – ARU
This study has been fully peer-reviewed and published (not still awaiting publication)
University of Essex PTSD Study – Received £1 million from the National Institute for Health and Care Research, found 60% of participants showed significant clinical change with reduced depression and anxiety lasting at least a month Fishing PTSD research nets vital funding | University of Essex
The verdict: The NZ and UK studies are equally authoritative – both are large-scale (1,700-1,900 participants), peer-reviewed, and published in respected journals. The UK study specifically has the advantage of being led by a globally top-ranked researcher and is fully published.
Option with both NZ and UK studies referenced:
This NZ research is genuinely world-leading, alongside the 2023 UK study published in Epidemiologia. Both studies used rigorous clinical assessment tools with similar large sample sizes (around 1,900 participants each). The UK research found recreational anglers had dramatically lower rates of anxiety disorder, suicide attempts, and self-harm compared to non-anglers Fishing could ease severe mental health issues – survey – ARU, while the NZ study demonstrated a clear dose-response relationship – the more you fish, the better your mental health outcomes Angling linked to better wellbeing | Otago Daily Times Online News.
However, the environmental degradation point hits differently when you understand the science. We now have peer-reviewed evidence that fishing reduces psychological distress by over 50%, yet Canterbury’s degraded waterways are actively undermining those benefits. It’s not just about nostalgia for ‘the good old days’ – it’s about destroying a scientifically proven mental health resource. The irony of Fish & Game celebrating this research while failing to adequately fight the environmental destruction is genuinely troubling.
A fundamental flaw in ECan and Canterbury Federated Farmers’ approach to freshwater is that humans and economic “sustainability” is all that matters. This is why a probably unsafe Maximum Allowable Value for nitrate in human drinking water has become this region’s yardstick for “environmental limits” for nitate.
That is why ECan has public excluded consent hearings with stakeholders – the irrigation companies and diffuse polluters. That is why the Canterbury Mayoral Forum controls the pro irrigation Canterbury Water Management Strategy to which the Canterbury Land and Water Regional Plan is subordinate. That is why the ten ECan managed Water Zone Committees, stacked with water users, have achieved so little having allowed the Selwyn Water Zone for example to be 134% allocated with an already exceeded nitrate limit set for the Zone of 8.5 mg/L NO3-N.
Meanwhile the North Canterbury F&G council has focused its strategies to work with the water users, ECan and latterly James Meager being the most influential F&G region in the ongoing shakeup of F&G.
Their controversially sacked CEO and other NC F&G staff have positioned themselves to have key positions in Meager’s reforms. Ironically NC F&G who sold out the Rakaia River NWCO in 2012, has failed to act on grossly inadequate fish screens, is currently blocking salmon anglers desperate attempts to set up hatcheries recognizing Canterbury’s braided river salmon fisheries need to be on life support until the ravages of irrigation are redressed.
Against a background of such a shambles, talk of angling for mental health is farcical.