MAINTAIN RECREATIONAL FISHING STATISTICS

Desired Outcome: Data on attitudes, motivation, demographics, participation, fishing methods, catch and effort are available at state and national levels to assist decision making on recreational fishing.

PRIORITY AREAS FOR INVESTMENT

The following are the priorities for investment in statistics on recreational fishing:

 Catch and effort of recreational fishers in key fisheries;

 Participation in recreational fishing;

 Demographics of recreational fishers;

 A national register of recreational fishers.

SIGNIFICANCE OF ISSUE

Basic statistics on recreational fishing are essential for management of recreational fisheries and to enable recreational fishing bodies to engage objectively in debates on national issues such as Government fisheries policy development, increasing funding for recreational fishing, recreational fishers’ rights and resource allocation. Recreational catch data are becoming increasingly important in assessing fish stocks and the performance of fisheries management arrangements.

CURRENT STATUS

The 2000 National Survey of Recreational Fishing produced the first national statistics on recreational fishing in relation to participation, fishing effort, catch, expenditure, attitudes and awareness. A number of attempts to initiate a follow-up survey have been unsuccessful.

Most states are undertaking their own surveys, with a number using the same or similar methodology as the national survey, to meet their own priorities. The focus has shifted to how to develop national statistics based on sharing and aggregating data collected through State and other programs.

RECFISHING RESEARCH STRATEGIC RESPONSE

 Recfishing Research has supported the development of a “bottom up” approach to the generation of national statistics, particularly in relation to catch and effort. The concept is to aggregate data being collected at the state and regional level up to a national level.

A key issue in obtaining statistics on recreational fishing is the cost of obtaining data using conventional survey methods. Recfishing Research is working with a number of projects to develop and test alternative methods of collecting data on recreational fishing.

PROGRESS TO DATE

The Australian Fisheries Management Forum, with support from Recfishing Research and Recfish Australia, initiated a project to develop a plan to address national needs for recreational fishing data for fisheries management and development. The project was undertaken by Fisheries Victoria. The final report “Development of a plan to meet national needs for recreational fishing data for fisheries management and development” should be available early in 2009/10. The report outlines the methods but does not provide a plan for how to generate national statistics.

Fisheries Victoria, NSW DPI, WA Fisheries and CSIRO are all working on projects that are examining or developing new methods for obtaining recreational fishing statistics. These projects are aimed at methods for collecting data on specific fisheries that are difficult and costly to survey using conventional survey methods.

Tasmania, South Australia and the Northern Territory are undertaking statewide surveys using similar methodology to that used in the 2000 National Survey.

Queensland is currently undertaking a regional survey in Moreton Bay and are proposing a further statewide survey under its RFISH program in 2009/10.

Regional surveys being undertaken in Western Australia and fishery-specific surveys are being conducted in Western Australia and NSW.

PROJECTS RECFISHING RESEARCH IS MONITORING

FRDC project 2008/042: “Development of a plan to meet national needs for recreational fishing data for fisheries management and development”. Fisheries Victoria: Anthony Hurst anthony.hurst@dpi.vic.gov.au

Timeframe: Final report due May 2009. State surveys are being undertaken in Tasmania, South Australia and the Northern Territory using similar methodology to that used in the 2000 national survey.

FRDC project 2003/047: “Evaluation of methods of obtaining annual catch estimates for individual Victorian bay and inlet recreational fisheries” Fisheries Victoria: Karina Ryan Karina.Ryan@dpi.vic.gov.au

Timeframe: July 2003 - October 2008 Project is awaiting the final report

FRDC project 2008/005: “New and innovative approaches to monitoring small-scale recreational fisheries” Fisheries Victoria: Daniel Grixti Daniel.Grixti@dpi.vic.gov.au

Timeframe: July 2008 - August 2011

FRDC project 2002/059: “Developing fishery-independent surveys for the adaptive management of NSW’s estuarine fisheries” NSW Department of Primary Industries: Charles Gray

Timeframe: October 2002 - October 2008 Project is awaiting the final report

FRDC project 2008/004: “Integrating fishery-independent and dependent data for improved sustainability of fisheries resources and other aspects of biodiversity” NSW Department of Primary Industries: Dr D Rotherham Timeframe: July 2008 - October 2011

FRDC project 2007/014: “Developing innovative and cost-effective tools for monitoring recreational fishing in Commonwealth fisheries” CSIRO project: Shane Griffiths shane.griffiths@csiro.au Timeframe: Jan 2009 - July 2010

FRDC project 2007/064: "Tactical Research Fund: Developing an analytical model for large-scale recreational fishery data based on a phone/diary survey methodology" University of Tasmania: Jeremy Lyle jeremy.lyle@utas.edu.au

Timeframe: May 2008- December 2009 FRDC project 2005/034: “Determination of cost-effective techniques to monitor recreational catch and effort in Western Australian demersal finfish fisheries” WA Fisheries: Rick Fletcher Rick.Fletcher@fish.wa.gov.au Timeframe: June 2005 - June 2007 No report yet available