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| Recreational and charter fishing |
| It is difficult to collect and aggregate catch and effort data relating to the recreational fishing sector as in the majority of cases recreational fishers do not have to report their activities to a management agency. Valuation of the recreational sector is even more difficult because, unlike the commercial sector whose outputs are sold in markets, the value of recreational fishing is often not revealed through markets. While non-market valuation techniques could be applied, any value derived from such an approach would not be comparable with the gross value of production measure used for valuing the commercial sector . The management of recreational and charter fishing in Australia is the responsibility of the individual state and territory authorities. Licensing requirements and regulations vary considerably between jurisdictions and often depend on location, fishing method and species being targeted. In New South Wales, a recreational fishing licence is required for all recreational fishing activities. Size and bag limits apply for many species, as do gear restrictions and area/seasonal closures. Charter boats are also required to hold a licence and maintain comprehensive catch records. Similarly, an all-water recreational fishing licence is required for recreational fishing activities in Victoria; however, there are a number of categories entitled an exemption to holding a licence. Once again, size and catch limits, and area and seasonal closures, apply. In Western Australia, recreational fishing licences are required for abalone, rock lobster, marron, net fishing and freshwater angling. Seasonal closures are used to moderate fishing effort, and size and bag limits also apply for the majority of species caught. Since 2001, operators in the aquatic tour industries, including charter fishing boats, are required to hold a licence. A recreational fishing licence is necessary in Tasmania for inland freshwater fishing, and also for the collection of abalone, rock lobster and scallops. Gear restrictions and seasonal closures also apply. Bag, size and possession limits and area restrictions apply in Western Australia for abalone, rock lobster, shellfish and scalefish. Recreational fishers in Queensland, South Australia and the Northern Territory are not required to hold a licence, although in the Northern Territory a permit is needed to enter Aboriginal land and adjoining waters. Charter boats in South Australia and Queensland, and commercial fishing guides in the Northern Territory, are required to hold a licence and must submit a logbook of their catch. In the absence of licence regulations, Queensland and South Australia use effort controls such as size and bag limits, gear restrictions and seasonal and area closures to regulate catch, while in the Northern Territory fish possession limits apply for a number of species. The last consistent collection of data relating to recreational fishing was the National Recreational and Indigenous Fishing (NRIF) Survey in 2000-01 (Henry and Lyle eds 2003). Commonwealth and state agencies carried out the survey over the 12 months to May 2001. This study used telephone and diary survey methods to estimate the number of recreational fishers in each state and territory and the extent of their activities. Data collected included catch, fishing mode and location, and expenditure data at the state level. A number of individual state/territory surveys have been undertaken on recreational fishing, based either on species or on individual fisheries/regions. However, because of the inconsistent nature of the data collected, it is not possible to present up-to-date aggregations on catch and value, by species and state. Details of information collected by each state are summarised in table B. Of particular note is Queensland, which has made available an online interactive database containing information on recreational species caught in Queensland (the Coastal Habitat Resources Information System or CHRIS). |
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| state/territory | notes | ||||||||
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| New South Wales | • |
No comprehensive species level value or catch data available for the recreational sector. | |||||||
| www.dpi.nsw.gov.au | • |
Charter boat operators required to maintain comprehensive catch records. | |||||||
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NRIF survey estimated that recreational fishers in NSW spent more than $550 million on fishing related items in 2000-01. | ||||||||
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Various economic impact and regional expenditure reports, either by species or region (for example, Economic Impact of the Striped Marlin Fishery, EYEcon 2004). | ||||||||
| Victoria www.dpi.vic.gov.au |
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No comprehensive species level value or catch data available for either recreational or charter sector. | |||||||
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Various recreational fishing surveys (for example, surveys of Victorian recreational rock lobster fishery during 1996-98). | ||||||||
| Queensland www.dpi.qld.gov.au |
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No comprehensive species level value data available but aggregate catch and effort data reported on CHRIS. | |||||||
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Charter boats required to maintain logbook data containing information on catch and fishing effort. | ||||||||
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Recreational fishing surveys (phone based) were conducted in 1996, 1998 and 2001. | ||||||||
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Currently conducting 2007-08 recreational fishing survey. | ||||||||
| Western Australia | • |
No comprehensive species level value or catch data available for the recreational sector. | |||||||
| www.fish.wa.gov.au | • |
Monthly catch data collected from all charter operators holding a ‘fishing tour license’. | |||||||
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Recreational fishing telephone surveys conducted in 1996, 1997 and 1998. Data collected included the number of people who fished and days fished. | ||||||||
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Estimates of catch rates and economic value generated by recreational fishing for some sectors published in the annual State of the Fisheries Report; for example, the licensed recreational rock lobster fishery was valued at $8.1 million in 2004-05. | ||||||||
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Various recreational fishing surveys (for example, a 12 month survey of recreational estuarine fishing in the South Coast bioregion of Western Australia during 2002-03, Smallwood and Sumner 2007). | ||||||||
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The value of the recreational catch of marron in 2005 was estimated to be in the range of $182 000 to $327 000. These figures were based on logbook catch data and an average sale price for marron and do not include any ‘non-market’ values associated with recreational fishery. | ||||||||
| South Australia www.pir.sa.gov.au |
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Currently undertaking a recreational fishery survey (2007-08) using the same methodology as the 2000-01 national survey with results expected to be released in early 2009. | |||||||
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Preliminary economic modelling valued the recreational sector between $3.0 million and $4.7 million (Knight et al. 2007). | ||||||||
| Tasmania www.dpiw.tas.gov.au |
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No comprehensive species level value or catch data available. | |||||||
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A follow up to the 2000-01 national survey is currently being conducted, with results to be released mid-2009. | ||||||||
| Northern Territory www.fisheries.nt.gov.au |
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No comprehensive species level value or catch data available; however, the Amateur Fisherman’s Association of the Northern Territory administers a series of programs through which catch and effort data are recorded from several recreational fisheries. | |||||||
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Catch and effort data also gathered during annual fishing tournaments. | ||||||||
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Broadscale recreational fishing surveys conducted in 1986, 1995 and 2000-01 as part of the Northern Territory Department of Primary Industry, Fisheries and Mines’ wider fisheries research program. | ||||||||
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The 1995 Fishcount survey estimated that more than $30 million in total annual expenditure is directly attributable to recreational fishing (Coleman 1998). Most of this is directed toward the purchase of boats, vehicles and their associated running costs. | ||||||||
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No formal assessment of the annual contribution of the guide fishing industry to the Territory’s economy. | ||||||||
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