Implementation of the National Recreational and Indigenous Fishing Survey

Funded Activity Summary

Equitable fisheries management requires an information base on all extractive and non-extractive users of the resource. This has been well implemented for the commercial fishing sector where legislated catch and effort returns are standard practice. However, many inshore fisheries incorporate a significant recreational sector and efforts to collect comprehensive data from this sector have generally been ad hoc, responding to critical management needs rather than an orderly, routine monitoring program.

Although increased research effort has been allocated to recreational fishery data collection, a national assessment of the sector has not recently been attempted. The only previous national survey in Australia was conducted in 1983 by PA Management Consultants. Their results drew widespread attention to the scale and economic impact of recreational fishing in Australia and, although subject to some criticism, are still cited today despite the passage of 15 years.

An urgent need therefore exists to produce relevant and up to date recreational fishery statistics. The adoption of the National Policy by SCFA and MCFFA recognises this need and has provided the impetus for the work of the Steering Committee to date, and for this application to implement the National Survey. The primary focus of the Survey is to collect nationally consistent and comparable data on catch, effort, participation rates, demographics, economic activity, attitudes and awareness covering all aspects of ‘non-commercial’ fishing. These comprehensive datasets will then be available for incorporation into stock assessments of the nation's fisheries and resource allocation decisions.

In addition to the telephone / diary survey of the general population, two other components of the overall Survey are being designed – development of a survey of indigenous communities and of international visiting fishers. While these latter components will have different value to each State and Territory, the combination of recreational, indigenous and international fishing data will provide a comprehensive picture of non-commercial fishing, and allow exhaustive analysis of the extractive sectors of Australia’s fishing resources.

Objectives:
1. To determine the participation rate in recreational fishing nationally, by States and Territories and regionally, and profile the demographic characteristics of recreational fishers
2. To quantify catch and effort of the recreational fishing sector nationally, by States and Territories and, where appropriate, regionally
3. Collect data on expenditure by the recreational fishing sector nationally and regionally.
4. To establish attitudes and awareness of recreational fishers to issues relevant to their fishery
5. To quantify fishing activity by indigenous fishing communities (where significant) in terms of participation, catch and effort and attitudes
6. To quantify fishing activity of overseas fishers in terms of participation, effort and attitudes

Funded Activity Details

Start Date: 26-07-1999

End Date: 20-03-2004

Funding Scheme: Funding Scheme not available

Funding Amount: $821,947.06

Funder: Fisheries Research and Development Corporation

Research Topics

ANZSRC Field of Research (FoR)

There are no FoR codes available for this funding activity

ANZSRC Socio-Economic Objective (SEO)

There are no SEO codes available for this funding activity

Other Keywords

Bycatch | Community | Cost | Data | Economic | Fisheries Management | Fishing Gear | Input costs | Labour | Recreational Fishing | Stock Assessment | Survey

Related Links