A coordinated national data collection for recreational fishing in Australia (original) (raw)
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Review of recreational fishing surveys in Western Australia
2020
Recreational fishing has been a popular activity in Western Australia for many years, with an estimated 25% of the population participating in this activity in 2017/18. Recreational fishing surveys have been implemented by the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (formally Department of Fisheries) since 1976
Environmental Conservation, 2014
Overfishing is a mounting threat to marine ecosystems and food security worldwide. Recreational fisheries are poorly understood and pose governance challenges due to the scarcity of monitoring data. The impact of recreational spearfishing on eastern blue groper (Achoerodus viridis) and grey nurse shark (Carcharias taurus) in Australia was analysed by assessing a chronology of spearfishing publications for historical, ecological and social data. Reported captures of blue groper declined by 90% from 1952-1967. Grey nurse shark captures also declined. Interestingly, early warnings of declines for both species emerged from the spearfishing community 17 and 19 years, respectively, before protection. While recreational fishers may have serious impacts on vulnerable fish species, they could also play a vital role in conservation and advocacy. This highlights the importance of reciprocal communication between fishers, scientists and governments for managing and detecting declines in vulnerable species.
Catch and effort from a specialised recreational pelagic sport fishery off eastern Australia
Fisheries Research, 2012
Recreational fisheries are undergoing increasing participation, specialisation and fishing power and contribute significantly to the total catch of several species. The specialised recreational pelagic sport fishery off eastern Australia was studied using a 12-month daytime access point survey. Sport fishing comprised 15% of the fishing trips of the 7243 recreational fishers intercepted, with the majority of fishers being male (90%) and not members of a fishing club (89%). Fishing effort, catch rates and total estimated catch varied temporally, spatially and between fishing club and non-fishing club members. A total of 25 pelagic species were retained or released by fishers and catch rates were very low (0.001-0.047 fish h −1 ). A generalised additive model incorporating environmental variables provided a useful alternative to traditional direct estimation methods for estimating total annual catch. Estimated sport fishing effort (±S.E.) was 63,802 (±5114) angler hours in 2010. Estimated total catch (±S.E.) for yellowtail kingfish, Spanish mackerel and wahoo ranged between 4.61 (±1.39) and 11.61 (±4.00) t and was equivalent to 27-206% of the 2010 commercial catch for these species. These results demonstrate that the catch from small specialised recreational fisheries can be significant and need to be considered in stock and resource allocation assessments.
Offshore recreational fishing in Tasmania 2011/12
This study was undertaken to gain an understanding of the recreational offshore and game fisheries in Tasmania, particularly in relation to catch of tunas, pelagic sharks, Striped Trumpeter and Blue-eye Trevalla.
Marine and Freshwater Research, 2012
Effective management of a recreational fishery must include long-term monitoring programs that allow determination of trends in temporal and spatial variability of catch and effort data. Such monitoring becomes of inherently greater importance when managing a recreational fishery in a World Heritage Area, such as Shark Bay, Western Australia. Between 1998 and 2010, 11 12-month bus-route surveys of boat-based recreational fishing were undertaken at three key boat ramps in Shark Bay. These surveys demonstrated that, in response to the progressive implementation of new management measures, the estimated annual recreational fishing-boat effort decreased by 46%. As a consequence, the estimated annual retained and released catches of the key species, pink snapper (Pagrus auratus), declined and the proportions of the catches of this species that were released each year increased. Annual catches of other species also declined, however, the composition of species retained and released each y...
Zoology and Ecology, 2018
'Research-angler diary' (RAD) and fishery-independent survey (FIS) methods were trialled for sampling recreational fish populations of estuary perch (Macquaria colonorum) black bream (Acanthopagrus butcheri), and Murray cod (Maccullochella peelii) in their respective habitats. Catch rates and catch length-frequency distribution were compared based on 'catchability' and its components 'availability', 'encounterability', and 'selectivity'. The FIS consistently caught significantly more species at much higher numbers than the RAD. Catch rate and length-frequency patterns between RAD and FIS agreed better for fish above than below the legal minimum length (LML). All methods caught fish from a wide length-range, but the FIS caught smaller fish than the RAD. Higher catch rates for the FIS than the RAD for fish ≥ LML are explained by higher 'encounterability', whereas higher catch rates for fish < LML are explained by higher 'encounterability' and much higher 'selectivity' of the fishing gear. The FIS (demersal trawl, beach seine & electrofishing) methods provide reasonably unbiased indices of relative abundance and length-frequency distribution. Conversely, other than fish too small to catch during the trials, the RAD and FIS (gillnet) methods cannot be applied to indicate length class or cohort strength in the population without adjustment for the effects of species-specific selectivity.
Marine and Freshwater Research, 2019
Understanding the effects of anthropogenic disturbances on marine environments that support recreational fisheries requires suitable monitoring data. Although catch rates are frequently considered to inform resource status for commercial fisheries, similar time series data are generally unavailable for recreational fisheries. This study is based on 9 years of data from boat-based recreational fishing surveys in Port Phillip Bay, Australia. Harvest rates and length distributions of the retained catches for three target species were statistically compared over 4 years following commencement of shipping channel dredging (2008–11) with variability from a background period (2003–07). Mean harvest rates were generally within historical ranges, with increases for snapper (Chrysophrys auratus) and King George whiting (Sillaginodes punctatus) and decreases for sand flathead (Platycephalus bassensis). Length–frequency distributions were not significantly different to the background period, ex...
A national data collection framework for recreational fishing
2015
Knowledge and valuation of ecosystem services are important components for reaching the governmental goals for improving the natural environments. Recreational fishing has more than one million practitioners nationwide.Knowledge about the fishers and their catches increases the ability to assess whether the ecosystem services are retained. In addition, it gives means for evaluating the actions for the conservation, restoration and sustainable use of oceans, lakes and rivers. Knowledge of recreational fishing is also needed in order to follow up the details in its environmental objectives relating to outdoor recreation, tourism industry and the governmental goals in the open-air policy. The EU’s common fisheries policy, the Swedish environmental policy and Swedish fisheries policy all emphasize that ecosystem-based management should be implemented. Thus, there are needs for knowledge of the ecosystems which are exploited by humans. Fish populations are important components of aquatic...
International Workshop on Recreational Fishing Surveys
2020
Recreational fishing surveys have been conducted by the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (DPIRD, formerly Department of Fisheries) since 1975 (Tate et al., 2020). Within Western Australia, the first international workshop on recreational fishing surveys was held in January 2010 at the Western Australian Fisheries Marine Research Laboratories in Perth. The workshop aimed to audit existing survey methods and make recommendations for the design of integrated surveys to estimate recreational fishing harvest, catch and effort at statewide and bioregional scales (Wise & Fletcher 2013)