The need for RF promotion and education has been recognised in many sector strategies which is part of the need to:

•(A) Promote the key messages to existing Recreational fishers ;

"The National Code of Practice for Recreational and Sport Fishing" (Recfish Australia, 2010) identifies four main areas of fishing responsibility;
- Treating fish humanely;
- Looking after our fisheries;
- Protecting the environment and
- Respecting the rights of others.
This also includes a communication strategy, noting its impact in angler education.

Past key national projects in RF education have sought to inform and change angler behaviour eg. Release Fish Survival Program, NSW Rock Fishing / Angel rings (Vict / NSW), and provision of Fishing line waste bins sites at the coast. These have been “from the ground up” RF initiatives.

Educational initiatives respond to requests from RF enthusiasts for fishing clinics and “learn to fish” classes". RF education has broadened to also include fishing safety issues and impacts on non-English speaking fishers (see"Recreational Fishing and Safety in Australia...", Pepperell, 2008). RF educational agencies need to position themselves in the merging realm of social media.

There has been less focus on:

• (B) promoting the benefits of RF to the general populace;(both encouraging people to go fishing and lessening criticisms of RF- often through ingorance)

In the Recfishing Research Business Plan 2010/11 one of five strategic priorities is educational - ”... social, health and economic benefits of recreational fishing are recognised and valued by communities and governments...”. How can this be achieved?

RF education has gained minimal entry into the formal schools education system, and into non-formal education (sports/ recreation). A fuller nationally coordinated promotion and education approach is needed in this non-government voluntary sport sector. This is why the project, and the approach we propose, is needed.

Seagrasses are important fisheries habitats in NSW estuaries, supporting the juvenile stages of a range of economically important species. Extensive losses have occurred, and are continuing to occur, to seagrass beds throughout NSW, Australia and worldwide. Poor water quality, in terms of increased turbidity and nutrients, has been one cause for these losses, but there have also been large areas reclaimed, dredged and impacted by various coastal engineering works.

It is generally accepted that improved management of these seagrass areas is required, including restoration of damaged sites. In NSW this is hampered by a lack of relevant applied research. For example, if areas of seagrass are to be lost through a new development proposal, opportunities for compensation arise. Yet the success of transplanting seagrasses in these situations is not high and there are no guidelines for rehabilitating such sites, either in terms of site preparation or species selection.

The piecemeal approach to seagrass management issues, particularly the restoration problem, has involved taking advantage of short term projects arising from development proposals. However in the last decade, almost nothing new has been learnt about rehabilitation of seagrass beds. There is an urgent need to undertake a significant research project with the aim of investigating:

* present and past distributions of seagrasses in
selected NSW estuaries,
* growth requirements and ecology of NSW species,
* conservation priorities,
* site evaluation methods,
* impacts of management decisions on seagrasses, and,
* methods for rehabilitating sites.